WEEKLY: China's iron ore port stocks hit 44-month high
Over the same period, the total tonnage discharged from the 45 sampled ports nudged up by 5,020 tonnes/day from that as of February 7 to about 2.5 million t/d, Mysteel's survey showed.
The daily discharge rate of iron ore increased marginally during the working days after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over January 31-February 6, as many Chinese steelmakers were not so active in restocking iron ore even after their consumption during the long holiday break, according to a Shanghai-based analyst.
"Those steel mills with no urgent needs for iron ore chose to wait and see when prices fluctuated," she explained, adding that mills in North China's Hebei, Central China's Henan and East China's Shandong have been observing tough production curbs due to the air pollution control measures during the Winter Olympic Games (being staged in and around Beijing over February 4-20), so their demand for ore was dampened.
Among the total inventories, Australian iron ore increased to 74.8 million tonnes as of February 10 - a high since March 1 2019, rising for the second survey period by 1.3 million tonnes or 1.8% from that over January 28-February 7, while Brazilian ore decreased by 221,500 tonnes from the prior period to 53.9 million tonnes.
By product, both lumps and pellets declined over the latest survey period, with the former down by 64,500 tonnes from that as of February 7 to 21.3 million tonnes, and the latter dipping by 34,300 tonnes to 4.3 million tonnes. In contrast, concentrates grew by 206,100 tonnes or 1.9% to 10.8 million tonnes.
By ownership, the tonnage held by the Chinese traders swelled by 800,000 tonnes to 91.7 million tonnes as of February 10, with the proportion among the total remaining largely stable at 57.7%.
Written by Lea Li, liye@mysteel.com
Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com
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