BI-WEEKLY: China mills' iron ore stocks at 9-month high
Chinese steel producers speeded up their restocking of imported iron ore sintering fines over the past two weeks, as the Chinese New Year holiday (over January 31-February 6) was just around the corner and they had to ensure that there will be sufficient stocks for their steady production during the holiday, according to a Shanghai-based analyst.
As a result, Chinese mills were rather active in hauling iron ore from ports, as over January 14-20, the average daily iron ore discharge rate from the 45 ports totaled 3.3 million tonnes - a new high since August 14 2020, rising by 159,490 tonnes or 5.1% on week, according to Mysteel's latest survey.
Also, steelmakers in North China's Tangshan increased their ore buying, worrying that possible emergency curbs on their truck transportation of heavy industrial materials from local ports and new COVID-19 cases may disrupt their restocking plans later on, the analyst added.
Meanwhile, "ore demand from some steel mills in Tangshan and Shandong (in East China) recovered owing to the operation resumption of their blast furnaces," she pointed out.
Over January 14-20, the blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China's 247 steel mills under Mysteel's survey climbed for the sixth week by 1.19 percentage points on week to 81.08%, hitting the highest level since September 24 2021.
On the other hand, daily consumption of imported iron ore sintering fines among the 64 surveyed steel mills decreased to 479,900 tonnes/day as of January 26, down by 11,300 t/d or 2.3% on fortnight.
The existing imported iron ore sintering fines stocks at the mills, therefore, will be sufficient for 34 days of consumption, four days longer than two weeks before. The decline in mills' daily use of iron ore fines had also led to the mounting stocks, according to the analyst.
"Under the production restriction plans imposed by the Tangshan government during the winter heating season, local mills will have to curtail their facility operations including sintering machines until March 15," she said.
Written by Lea Li, liye@mysteel.com
Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com
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