Stocks of imported iron ore at China’s 45 major ports grew for the second week over October 11-17 to a new high of 127.2 million tonnes since end of May, or up another 544,300 tonnes or 0.4% on week, as new arrivals remained relatively high but discharge rates at some ports reversed down, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey released on October 18.
As of October 17, imported iron ore inventories at the country’s six core iron ore ports comprising Qingdao, Rizhao and Lianyungang in East China, and Tianjin, Caofeidian and Jingtang in North China, grew 976,300 tonnes or 1.3% on week to 74.7 million tonnes.
Mysteel’s other survey showed that over October 7-13, China’s 26 ports received 21.5 million tonnes of new iron ore arrivals, which reversed up 30,000 tonnes on week and a comparatively large quantity for a week.
As for daily discharge rate at the 45 Chinese ports, the tonnage fell by 82,800 tonnes/day or 2.7% on week to an average of 3 million t/d for all ports over October 11-17, which was, nevertheless, still relatively high for this year.
“The trading activity for iron ore port inventories at many ports tended to be relatively sluggish after the seven-day National Day holiday, so less iron ore were hauled from the port,” a market source from Shanghai said.
As for iron ore stocks by form, the pellets rose for the fourth week by 272,000 tonnes on week to a new high since end of January 2016, hitting 7.2 million tonnes. Lumps, however, reversed down by 465,100 tonnes on week after a two-week increase to 19.7 million tonnes, or accounting for 15.5% of the total, both as of October 17.
As of October 17 among all the iron ore stocks, Australia-origin cargoes grew another 260,600 tonnes on week to 66.2 million tonnes, and Brazilian iron ore also up 130,000 tonnes on week to about 35.7 million tonnes.
As for the division by ownership, the tonnage belonging to the traders rose by 937,200 tonnes on week to about 55.2 million tonnes, though the proportion stayed largely stable at 43.4 % of the total.
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