From JPM this morning:Iron Ore Price Watch: US$123.6/t … down...

From JPM this morning:

Iron Ore Price Watch: US$123.6/t … down another 1.1%. Here's some feedback from Steel Business Briefing who are usually pretty well tapped into what's going on in the industry:

With inventories of imported ore at Chinese stockyards reported to be high, sources at several steelmakers said they would rather buy smaller quantities from there rather than take seaborne material, which is sold in larger volumes. This has led port stock prices to be higher than those of seaborne material – an inversion of the usual case – with mills preferring the former, and sellers becoming less able to match the pace the decline in seaborne prices, having bought them earlier when prices were higher. TSI reported a cargo of Canadian 65% Fe pellets sold for $151/t, and Newman fines offered in the range $128-129/t. On China’s CBMX platform Australian 56.7% fines were offered $115/t and 59% fines were offered $125/t; there were no bids. Hmmm … doesn't sound too positive just yet … all eyes today focused on the release of the June HSBC Flash China Manufacturing PMI (due 12:30pm our time) … prev number was 48.1 … mkt looking for some kind (any kind!) of positive news here …