Daily iron ore concentrates output at the 186 Chinese mining companies Mysteel surveys fortnightly continued to dip to 480,900 MT/day over Dec 20-Jan 2, hitting a near three-month low. The total was down by another 13,700 MT/day or 2.8% on fortnight, with output in Southwest, East, Northeast and Northwest China dipping the most, according to Mysteel’s latest data release.
Accordingly, the miners’ concentrating capacity utilization rate also decreased by a further 1.76 percentage points over the two weeks to 61.58%.
Low winter temperatures led some small miners in Northeast China’s Liaoning province to begin suspending their operations and conduct maintenance instead, a Shanghai-based market watcher disclosed.
Actually, in Northwest China, most iron ore miners and beneficiation plants had already gradually halted production beginning last Oct’19, as the drop in winter temperatures makes concentrates production and transportation more difficult, as Mysteel Global reported. Winter is also a low demand season for local steelmakers.
Moreover, some large mining enterprises in Southwest and East China also halted production, as they had met their output targets for CY19 in advance, the source said.
However, although concentrates output among the 186 miners declined, the stocks held by these mining companies increased slightly during the survey period, reaching 3.83 MnT as of Jan 2, up by 27,000 MT or 0.7% on fortnight.
This small increase was mainly attributed to delivery restrictions in Tangshan in North China’s Hebei province, which led the local miners to accumulate stocks, Mysteel Global was told. “Normally, transportation using large vehicles including trucks would be prohibited in the city, once the local government issues an ‘orange’ alert warning for the severity of air pollution,” a Tangshan-based market insider said.
Last month Tangshan had enforced two emergency production curbs because of air pollution, Mysteel Global notes, spanning Dec 13-16 and Dec 23-26.
Over Dec 20-Jan 2, Mysteel’s bi-weekly survey among a smaller sample of 126 Chinese iron ore mining companies showed their concentrating capacity utilization rate had decreased by another 1.15 percentage points to 61.25%, while their concentrates stocks stabilized at 1.58 MnT, though declined by another tiny 300 MT on fortnight.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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