In Oct’15, China imported 75.52 MnT iron ore against 86.1MnT in Sept’15. Imports are down by 12.3% M-o-M.Iron ore imports to China decreased by 5% Y-o-Y in Oct’15.
While considering the 1st ten months of this year i.e. 2015, iron ore import volumes remained at 774.8 MnT against 778.4 MnT during same consecutive period in 2014.
Contraction in iron ore imports by China, was seen due to a week long National day Holiday compounded with slowdown in Chinese steel industry.
Slow economic growth in China had a massive impact on steel mills leading to slump in demand of iron ore. Chinese steel mills had been struggling with weak demand and declining iron ore prices globally. Most mills are on the track to curb production and rest of them already did.
Market analyst anticipates that global iron ore prices will touch at USD 45/MT owing to weak economy as well as slow demand. But, by looking towards current situation in China, imports may reduce in the coming term.
Steel Exports Down by 19.8% M-o-M
Despite of the fact that Chinese mills dump large amount of cheap steel products into overseas markets, exports in October actually fell by 19.8% to 9 MnT M-0-M. Steel exports was around 11.25 MnT in Sept’15.
However, steel exports will be un-viable from China in the near term. As the government had imposed anti-dumping and safe guard duty on steel exports. Recently, Indian government had also imposed anti dumping duty on steel imports from three nations namely China, Malaysia and Korea for 5 years. The step was taken to protect domestic producers from below-cost inbound shipments. Alongside, India imposed duty of USD 309/MT on imports of certain steel products from China.
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