Imported iron ore stocks at China’s 45 ports under Mysteel’s regular survey climbed to 160.3 million tonnes over February 11-17, rising by 1.4 million tonnes on week to hit the highest total since June 1 2018, the latest data show. Sources said inventories have swollen mainly because the easing of vessel congestion at the ports has caused unloading volumes to surge.
As of February 17, 148 iron ore vessels were queuing at ports to unload, according to Mysteel data, the shortest queue since last December 24 and seven fewer than were waiting at anchor on Thursday last week.
Over February 11-17, the average daily iron ore discharge rate from the 45 ports totaled 2.6 million tonnes/day, rising by another 74,790 t/d or 3% on week, as restocking demand among some domestic steelmakers had recovered. The mills expect the production curbs they’re under presently will be eased when the Winter Olympic Games – now being staged in and around Beijing – end on February 20, market sources said.
Among the total, the stocks of Australian iron ore at China’s 45 ports had increased to 76.8 million tonnes as of February 17, the highest level since January 2019 and up by 1.9 million tonnes or 2.6% on week. Conversely, the stocks of Brazilian ore dropped by 446,700 tonnes on week to 53.5 million tonnes, the data show.
The breakdown by iron ore form showed that stocks of pellets and concentrates grew over the survey period, with the former reaching a high since last April after the on-week gain of 371,900 tonnes or 8.6%, while inventories of the latter climbed by 441,100 tonnes or 4.1% on week to 11.3 million tonnes. In contrast, the port stocks of lumps decreased by 535,200 tonnes or 2.5% on week to 20.7 million tonnes.
By ownership, the tonnage held by Chinese iron ore traders rose by 1.1 million tonnes or 1.2% on week to 92.7 million tonnes. The traders’ stocks accounted for 57.8% of the total, 0.2 percentage point higher on week.
Written by Lea Li, liye@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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