Posted on 26 Feb 2021
Stocks of imported iron ore sintering fines at China’s 64 steel mills under Mysteel’s regular survey, just as expected, declined 2 million tonnes or 10% over from February 10 to about 17.8 million tonnes by February 24, as the mills had been relying on their in-plant iron ore stocks during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over February 10-17, according to the latest data.
It is a common practice for the Chinese steel mills to stock up some extra tonnage before the CNY holiday as both spot iron ore trading and logistics tend to be disrupted during the festival celebration, Mysteel Global understands.
Over February 10-24, these mills’ daily consumption of the imported sintering fines decreased but just modestly by 7,700 tonnes/day or 1.3% to 586,500 t/d in total, mainly as the steel mills in Tangshan, North China’s Hebei have had their sintering operations restricted since February 18 by the local authorities because of poor air quality, and the curbing has yet been lifted completely by February 25.
At the same times, some steel mills in South China have rolled out maintenance on their steelmaking facilities over the past two weeks, which has slowed down their daily sintering fines consumption too, according to Mysteel’s survey report.
At the present daily consumption rate, the existing imported iron ore sintering fines stocks at these 64 mills will be sufficient for around 27 days, or three days shorter than that by February 10, Mysteel’s data showed.
In contrast to lower sintering fines consumption, over February 5-18, blast furnace capacity utilization among China’s 247 steel mills had risen 1.25 percentage points from January 29-February 4 to 92.19%, which has boosted the market optimism on the Chinese steel mills’ appetite for iron ore procurement after the CNY holiday, nevertheless, Mysteel Global noted.
On February 24, Mysteel's PORTDEX 62% Fe Australian Iron Ore Fines was at Yuan 1,186/wmt ($183.6/wmt) FOT Qingdao and including the 13% VAT, up Yuan 47/wmt from February 10, the last trading day before CNY holiday.
Source:Mysteel Global
