Posted on 01 Apr 2022
Over March 24-30, the daily consumption of imported iron ore sintering fines at the 64 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey recovered after the previous week's decline, rising by 7,400 tonnes/day or 1.5% on week to 514,400 t/d on average. However, the stocks of these fines at the same surveyed mills declined further for the second week.
Over the survey period, some mills in South and North China had resumed sintering and blast furnace operations after completing regular maintenance, according to the weekly survey.
On the other hand, stocks of imported iron ore sintering fines at the 54 mills continued to edge down by another 339,400 tonnes or 2.3% on week to 14.62 million tonnes as of March 30. At the present rate of consumption, the existing tonnage should be enough to keep these mills operating for around 26 days, or one day less than under the previous survey, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Apart from these mills' higher daily consumption of fines, another factor leading to the decrease in the mills' stocks were the delays in receiving iron ore shipments, survey respondents said. Local government efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus have caused transportation disruptions in many cities and ports, as reported.
For example, among surveyed steelmakers in six areas and regions, some along the Yangtze River posted the largest decline in stocks, with their ore inventories down 10.1% or 140,000 tonnes on week to 1.25 million tonnes. Only slightly better stocked were mills in Tangshan in North China's Hebei province where combined inventories had edged down by 89,500 tonnes or 5.6% on week to 1.51 million tonnes, Mysteel's data shows.
Despite the lower stocks at steelmakers, their demand for iron ore remained strong during the week, which lent support to iron ore prices and moved them higher, Mysteel Global noted.
As of March 30, Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines had grown by $12.1/dmt on week to $158.55/dmt CFR Qingdao.
Source:Mysteel Global
