China: ROM iron ore output tumbles 12.2% y-o-y in Jan-Apr’25

• Hebei’s ROM output plunges 24% y-o-y in Jan-Apr
• Subdued iron ore concentrate tags pressure miners

Mysteel Global: China’s run-of-mine (ROM) iron ore production during January-April this year totalled some 328.6 million tonnes (mnt), down by a large 12.2% y-o-y, according to the latest data from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Among the country’s main producing areas, North China’s Hebei province saw its ROM ore output in the first four months drop by a substantial 24.1% y-o-y to 148.1 mnt, while output in Northeast China’s Liaoning province decreased by 5.3% y-o-y to 58 mnt, the NBS data show.

In April alone, China produced 84.7 mnt of ROM iron ore, lower by 3.6% y-o-y, though the daily average output was 4.8% higher than in March at 2.8 mnt/day.

The downtrend shown in the NBS data comes as no surprise. The findings of Mysteel’s surveys have pointed to weakened production activity among Chinese iron ore mines over the past few months, which also caused the decline in the country’s concentrate production.

For example, over January-April this year, the capacity utilisation rate among the 186 Chinese mining enterprises under Mysteel’s tracking averaged 60.9%, against 63.6% during the same period last year.

Meanwhile, during the first four months, output of iron ore concs at the 332 Chinese mining companies also monitored by Mysteel was 5.3%, lower y-o-y at 84.4 t.

The enthusiasm of Chinese miners for producing the feedstock has been cool, as domestic iron ore concs prices have been hovering at low levels so far this year, according to Mysteel’s data.

During January-April, average offers for Fe 66% grade iron ore concs in Hebei’s Tangshan – China’s top iron and steel producing hub – were assessed by Mysteel at RMB 961/dry metric tonne (dmt) ($133.1/t) exw and including the 13% VAT, down by a significant RMB 142/dmt or 12.9% from the average price during January-April 2024.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.