- Port inventories rise for fifth straight week
- Daily outflows rebound after 4-week slump
Mysteel Global: Inventories of imported iron ore stockpiled at China’s major 45 ports under Mysteel’s regular tracking increased for the fifth straight week to reach 145.4 million tonnes (mnt) by 30 October, the highest level since end-March, according to Mysteel’s latest survey results. Although this represented a w-o-w growth of 1.2 mnt or 0.8%, total stocks were still 6% lower y-o-y.
The port stocks continued to absorb the ore cargoes from previous arrivals, though recent arrivals declined further. During 20-26 October, the total volume of iron ore arriving at the 45 surveyed ports slumped by another 4.9 mnt or 19.5% w-o-w to 20.3 mnt. Nonetheless, the slow unloading rate caused the number of vessels queuing at these ports to be offloaded to rise by 11 w-o-w to 118 by 30 October.
On the other hand, outflows of iron ore from the ports rebounded after a four-week weakness. The daily discharge volume of iron ore from the same 45 ports during 23-29 October increased by 75,100 tonnes (t)/day or 2.4% w-o-w to an average of 3.2 mnt/d.
By origin, portside iron ore stocks shipped from Australia gained 824,000 t or 1.4% w-o-w to 60.2 mnt, while those from Brazil finally slipped after rising steadily for almost three months. Specifically, Brazilian ore stocks edged down by 275,600 t or 0.5% w-o-w to 57.4 mnt.
By product form, stocks of lumps dropped by 3.2% w-o-w to 18.6 mnt, following a six-week increase, while other products all recorded w-o-w gains. Pellets advanced by 5.4% to 2.9 mnt, concentrates grew by 1.8% to 11.5 mnt, and fines added 1.3% to reach 112.4 mnt.
By ownership, iron ore inventories at the 45 ports owned by Chinese traders increased for the fifth straight week to 93.1 mnt, up by 695,900 tonnes or 0.8% w-o-w, but its share of total port stocks was lower at 64%.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.
Leave a Reply