Total imported iron ore stocks at the 45 Chinese ports had been rising since late August, and over October 23-29, the volume gained another 3.5 million tonnes or 2.8% on week to a new eight-month high of 127.7 million tonnes, mainly due to the relatively high iron ore arrivals over the period, Mysteel’s latest survey showed.
Over October 19-25, the 45 ports received around 25.3 million tonnes of new iron ore shipments, Mysteel’s other weekly survey showed, which went down 488,000 tonnes on week was still at a rather high level, and as of October 29, 149 iron ore vessels were still queuing at these ports to be unloaded, or just two fewer than the previous week.
Over the period, the imported iron ore stocks at the six major iron ore ports in North and East China went up 1.4% or 1.43 million tonnes on week to 76.5 million tonnes as of October 29
Over October 23-29, the total volume of iron ore discharged from the 45 ports reversed up after two weeks of declines, gaining 47,700 tonnes/day or 1.55% on week to 3.13 million t/d, Mysteel understood.
The breakdown by iron ore form showed that both lumps and concentrates increased, with the former up for the second week by 232,300 tonnes on week to about 25.8 million tonnes, and the latter reversed up by 172,500 tonnes on week to 12.3 million tonnes by October 29, while pellets stocks decreased for the third week, down another 265,500 tonnes on week to around 9.5 million tonnes, as the Chinese steel mills had shown preference to pellets recently.
By origin, stocks of both the Australian and Brazilian iron ore rose with the former up by 1.72 million tonnes or 2.9% on week to 60.3 million tonnes, a new high since mid-August, and the latter stayed on the uptrend since late-July, up another 2.4 million tonnes to 39.4 million tonnes, according to Mysteel’s data.
By ownership, the tonnage held by the Chinese traders climbed for the sixth week by another 1.73 million tonnes or 2.9% on week to 61.7 million tonnes by October 29, accounting for 48.3% of the total, which was flat on week.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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