Posted on 15 Nov 2021
By November 11, total stocks of imported iron ore at China's 45 major ports under Mysteel's survey rose to the highest since August 17 2018, approximating 150 million tonnes after the seventh on-week increase by 3 million tonnes or 2.1%, mainly as the decline in daily discharge had outpaced the lower arrivals of new shipments at these ports over November 5-11.
Over the latest survey period, the total tonnage discharged from these 45 ports ebbed for the second week by another 119,400 tonnes/day or 4.2% to 2.7 million t/d, though over November 1-7, these ports received around 24.2 million tonnes of iron ore, also down for the second week by 286,000 tonnes or 1.2%, according to Mysteel's other shipment survey.
China's steelmakers had hauled less iron ore from the ports as their steel margins had been seriously compromised with domestic steel price drops and some were even into losses, and at the same time, their steel production has and will be curtailed under power rationing and winter restrictions in the coming months, a Shanghai-based analyst noted.
Among all the port inventories, Brazilian tonnage grew for the 15th week by another 2.1 million tonnes or 4.2% to 51.9 million tonnes, or a new high since December 25 2015 when Mysteel commenced the survey, and Australian ore also touched the highest since April 5 2019 with 71.2 million tonnes or after gaining for the fifth week by 617,300 tonnes.
By product, lumps and pellets both decreased, with the former dropping from six weeks of gains by 724,400 tonnes or 3% to 23.6 million tonnes, and the latter down 174,000 tonnes or 4.3% to 3.8 million tonnes after rises in the prior two weeks. Concentrates, on the contrary, increased for the fourth week by 78,600 tonnes to 11.2 million tonnes.
By ownership, the tonnage belonging to the traders refreshed the highest since Mysteel launched the survey on December 25 2015, totaling 87.9 million tonnes after the seventh on-week growth by 922,000 tonnes or 1.1%, or accounting for 58.6% of the total, which eased 0.6 percentage point after five weeks of gains.
Source:Mysteel Global
