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Australian iron ore shipments to worldwide refreshed its nine-month low, hitting 11.8 million tonnes as of January 19 after another decline by 529,000 tonnes or 4.3% on week, as Rio Tinto suspended operations at its two ports for a total of four days because of Cyclone Claudia, according to Mysteel’s latest survey released on January 21.
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Imported coking coal stocks at the five Chinese ports under Mysteel’s weekly survey dropped again over January 10-16 by 410,000 tonnes or 7% to 5.3 million tonnes, a seven-month low, as the remaining buoyant coking coal demand from domestic steel mills and coke plants while few new coal shipments arrived at these ports.
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Stocks of iron ore concentrates at the 186 Chinese mining companies Mysteel surveys every fortnight reversed down to 3.79 million tonnes over January 3-16, a new low since October 10, mainly because most steelmakers in North China had replenished their holdings of concentrates for the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, according to Mysteel’s latest data release.
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China’s domestic steel scrap market remained generally stable over the week of January 13-17, with Mysteel’s steel scrap price index assessed at Yuan 2,584.1/t ($369.2/t) on delivery to steel plants and including the 13% VAT, nudging higher by a tiny Yuan 0.4/t, according to Mysteel’s database. The scarcity of market transactions with the approach of the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday was the chief reason, Mysteel Global noted.
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Most Chinese steel mills had gradually completed their pre-holiday iron ore replenishment over the January 13-17 week, and now are actively dragging their port inventories from ports to their plants, according to market sources on Monday.
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Coke stocks at the 110 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel’s weekly survey piled up to about 5.1 million tonnes as of January 16, a new high since mid-April 2014, or up another 137,100 tonnes or 2.8% on week, chiefly because of the steady high coke arrivals at plants.
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Prices ofimported
coal prices increased over January 13-17. Purchase inquiries and transactions
were few and far between.
Coking coal imports
Quotations
of imported coking coal to China
PCIcoal imports:
Quotations
of importedPCIcoal to China
Unit: $/tonne, VAT excluded
Thermal coal imports:
Imported coking coal port stocks on Jan 17
(Unit: in ’000 tonnes)
Note: Jingtang port
stocks have been included in Shougang Group’s inventories
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Blast furnace capacity utilization among the 247 blast-furnace steel companies across China which Mysteel surveys weekly decreased further by 0.53 percentage point on week to 78.88% over the week of January 10-16, according to Mysteel’s latest survey published on January 17. The use rate was still 2.43 percentage points higher than this time last year, however.
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Stocks of imported iron ore at China’s 45 major ports increased by a small 360,700 tonnes or 0.3% on week to 123.7 million tonnes as of January 16, after declining for two weeks straight which saw 3.57 million tonnes removed, Mysteel's latest weekly survey showed. The rise in inventories followed the easing of congestion at some ports and largely offset the higher overall daily discharge of ore during the period, respondents said.
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Though steel scrap prices in many global markets diverged amid mixed market sentiment over the week of January 3-10, that of heavy melting scrap (HMS) (1&2) to Turkey, the most representative of market, remained stable at $303/tonne CFR as of January 10, increasing by a tiny $2/t on week.
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Australian iron ore shipments to worldwide slipped to its nine-month low of 12.3 million tonnes as of January 12 after having plunged by 2.9 million tonnes or 19% on week with the tropical cyclone Blake sweeping across Pilbara, Western Australia, on January 7, according to Mysteel’s latest survey released on January 14.
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Prices of domestic iron ore concentrates in most regions across China on both the buy and sell sides increased over the week of January 6-10, rising by Yuan 5-35/tonne ($0.7-5.1/t) on week, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey. The uptick in domestic concentrate prices followed the active imported iron ore market which had received a boost from a few domestic steel mills hurriedly trying to complete ore replenishment to tide them through the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday.
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Steel scrap inventories at the 61 Chinese steel plants Mysteel monitors weekly comprising both blast furnace and electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmakers continued to rise to hit a near one-year high of 3.74 million tonnes as of January 9, the highest since February 1 last year. This represented a week-on-week climb of 160,200 tonnes or 4.47% and marked the tenth successive weekly rise, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
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Chinese steel mills bought iron ore port inventories actively over the past week, though prices finally eased at the end of the week as trading cooled on the last two days, according to Mysteel’s weekly survey.
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Total stocks of foreign coking coal at the five major Chinese ports Mysteel surveys weekly declined by another 260,000 tonnes or 4.3% on week to reach 5.7 million tonnes as at January 9 to refresh a five-month low, according to Mysteel’s survey published on January 10. Last week marked the fifth in succession that imported coking coal stocks have declined, despite the easing of the country’s coal import restrictions from January 1, Mysteel Global noted.
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Total stocks of merchant coke at the 230 Chinese independent coke plants Mysteel monitors weekly reversed up after two straight weeks of decrease, rising by 222,900 tonnes or 26% on week to reach a six-week high of 1.08 million tonnes as of January 9, Mysteel’s data published on Friday showed. Heavy snow in North China – and the delivery problems this caused – was chiefly responsible.
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Prices ofimported
coal prices increased over January 3-10. Purchase inquiries and transactions
were few and far between.
Coking coal imports
Quotations
of imported coking coal to China
PCIcoal imports:
Quotations
of importedPCIcoal to China
Unit: $/tonne, VAT excluded
Thermal coal imports:
Imported coking coal port stocks on Jan 10
(Unit: in ’000 tonnes)
Note: Jingtang port
stocks have been included in Shougang Group’s inventories
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Total coking coal stocks at the 230 independent coking plants Mysteel samples nationwide reached a near eleven-month high of 16.4 million tonnes as of January 9, after growing another 356,600 tonnes or 2.2% on week, according to Mysteel’s latest survey published on January 10. Survey respondents said coal replenishment among the coke makers had stayed buoyant over January 3-9 but the makers had eased back on consumption.
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The blast furnace capacity utilization rate among the 247 blast furnace steelmakers across China under Mysteel’s weekly survey reversed down 0.24 percentage point on week to 79.41% as of January 9, with another round of restriction on steel mills in North and East China over January 2-7, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey released on January 10.
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Imported iron ore stocks at China’s 45 major ports inched down further by another 1.8 million tonnes over January 3-9 to around 123.4 million tonnes as of January 9, and both arrivals at the 26 ports and the daily discharge rate at the 45 ports were in general stable, Mysteel's latest weekly survey showed.
