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Both buy and sell prices of Chinese iron ore concentrates increased again over the May 13-17 week, rising by Yuan 5-20/tonne ($0.7-2.9/t) and mirroring the trend in prices of imported iron ore which surged to new highs, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey released late last Friday.
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Coking coal stocks at plants operated by the 230 Chinese independent coke makers surveyed weekly by Mysteel grew 2.4% or 335,900 tonnes on week to 14.5 million tonnes as of May 16, enough to last the makers for 15.74 days, or 0.23 day up on week, according to Mysteel’s data published on May 17. Healthy coke margins and the bullishness of the domestic coke market had encouraged the plants to buy more feedstocks, market sources explained.
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Good fundamentals pushed Chinese prices of imported iron ore to five-year highs over the past week, as Mysteel reported, a climb that has annoyed domestic steel mills when their profit margins on finished steel continue to languish at relatively low levels.
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Prices ofimported
coal prices were mixed over May 13-17 2019. 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 May 17
(Unit: in ’000 tonnes)
Note: Jingtang port
stocks have been included in Shougang
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Coke stocks at the 230 Chinese independent coke plants monitored weekly by Mysteel dipped by another 51,400 tonnes or 4.7% on week as of May 16 to reach 1.05 million tonnes, a three-month low, despite the fact that the merchant coke producers’ output edged up by 6,100 tonnes/day on week to 694,400 tonnes/day, according to Mysteel’s survey published on May 17.
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The capacity utilization rate at 247 blast-furnace steel companies across China persisted at a rather high level of 83.69% as of May 16, or up 0.26 percentage point despite the ongoing restriction of operations among the steel mills in Tangshan, North China’s Hebei province, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey released on May 17.
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Imported iron ore inventories at China’s 45 major ports declined further, hitting its 19-month low of 132 million tonnes as of May 16, according to Mysteel’s latest release on May 17.
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Total iron ore shipments from Australia and Brazil to worldwide reversed down over May 6-12 by 2.8 million tonnes or 12% on week to 20.8 million tonnes, as the volumes from both the origins declined, according to Mysteel's latest survey released on May 14.
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Chinese steel mills raised their buying prices for domestically-sourced iron ore concentrates by Yuan 10-30/tonne ($1.5-4.4/t) over May 5-10, with domestic offer prices rising accordingly by as much as Yuan 30/t over the same period, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey released late last Friday.
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Chinese prices of imported iron ore rose higher over the past week on Vale’s news of May 7 about suspending wet processing operations at its Brucutu mine, and on Chinese steel mills’ replenishments after the four-day Labour Day holiday over May 1-4, with the trading volume for port inventories also increasing over the period.
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China’s coking coal market stayed robust over May 6-10, and the spot price of coking coal with 8% ash and 0.5% sulphur in Changzhi, North China’s Shanxi, strengthened by another Yuan 20/tonne ($2.9/t) on week to Yuan 1,520/t EXW and including the 13% VAT as of May 10, or up Yuan 40/t in total in two weeks.
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China’s domestic steel scrap market witnessed a slight softening over the week of May 5-10, due to the rise in stocks among steelmakers, with Mysteel’s steel scrap pricing index nosing down by Yuan 3.8/tonne ($0.55/t) or 0.15% from May 5 to reach Yuan 2,544/t on delivery to mills and including the 13% VAT as of May 10.
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Coke stocks at the 230 Chinese independent coke plants Mysteel surveys weekly dropped by 97,800 tonnes or 8.1% from the prior survey on May 5 to reach 1.1 million tonnes as of May 9, a nine-week low. However, their coke output edged up 1,400 tonnes/day or 0.2% from the previous period to 688,300 t/d, according to Mysteel’s survey published on May 10.
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Daily production of iron ore concentrates among the 186 Chinese mining companies under Mysteel’s bi-weekly survey was generally steady over the April 26-May 9 survey period, up by a tiny 1,600 tonnes/day or 0.3% on fortnight to 500,500 t/d.
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Prices ofimported
coal prices were mixed over May 6-10 2019. 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 May 9
(Unit: in ’000 tonnes)
Note: Jingtang port stocks
have been included in Shougang
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Stocks of the five major carbon-steel items at Chinese traders continued to trend downward over the week of May 2-8, but the pace of decline pace was slowed by the high levels of production, as well as the ebbing momentum of rises in demand, Mysteel Global notes.
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The utilization rate of blast furnaces in operation among the 247 Chinese steel companies across the country under Mysteel’s survey has shown its first slight on-week dip after rising for seven straight weeks, easing to 83.43% as of May 9, according to the latest weekly survey Mysteel published on May 10.
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Imported iron ore inventories at China’s 45 major ports reduced further to 133.3 million tonnes as of May 9, down 1.07 million tonnes or 0.8% from May 5, as the average daily discharge volume was on the rise while new arrivals at many ports changed little, according to Mysteel’s latest release on May 10.
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Inventories of imported iron ore sintering fines stockpiled at the 64 Chinese steel mills included in Mysteel’s regular survey reversed down over April 25-May 8, after the fourth straight survey-period rise. Daily consumption of these fines among the same mills rebounded during the fortnight, the results published on May 9 also show.
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Mysteel’s composite coking coal price index reached a three-week high at Yuan 1,219.5/t ($180/t) including the 13% VAT on May 5 – albeit higher by just Yuan 3.6/t over the April 25-May 5 period – mainly due to growth in prices of some low-sulphur hard coking coal products last week.
