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The idling of production at Anglo American’s Moranbah North Coal mine in Australia following a fatality at the mine will have limited influence on China’s coal market, sources suggested on February 21. Of greater concern are the renewed restrictions on coal imports.
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Chinese steelmakers’ growing interest in lower-grade iron ore has been benefiting suppliers of such grade products such as Fortescue Metals (FMG), enabling the world’s fourth largest iron ore producer to further reduce the discounts on its major products for March deliveries against the 62% price and to enjoy higher profits, market sources remarked on Thursday.
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Echeng Steel Co, a subsidiary of China Baowu Steel Group Corp, planned to build a new 120-tonne converter at its existing works in Ezhou, Central China’s Hubei province, to replace old facilities, The notice from Hubei’s provincial Ministry of Economy and Information Technology on February 19.
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Vale has suspended all the activities at the Fábrica mine at its Paraopeba Complex under its Southern System, an industrial source close to Vale confirmed a company release on February 20.
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Australian miner Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) achieved revenue of $3.54 billion and underlying net profit after tax of $644 million in the first half of the company’s 2019 financial year (July-December 2018), 10% and 66% higher respectively than the previous half financial year (spanning January-June 2018), according to FMG’s latest half-year result published on February 20, though these were down 4% and 7% on the previous corresponding period (1H18). The company reports in US dollars unless otherwise stated.
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Shanghai-listed Shanxi Coking Company (SCC) has warned that its coke output will decline by about 220,000 tonnes over February 16-March 31 because of emergency production curbs taking effect during the same period to contain air pollution, according to a company notice on February 20. It said the cutbacks were ordered by local authorities of Hongtong county, located in Linfen in North China’s Shanxi province, where its plant is located.
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A series of accidents at major iron ore miners over the past several months has led Chinese market participants to become largely unfazed by small-scale incidents such as that involving driverless trucks at Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group a week ago.
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Chinese iron ore market participants say that the impact felt by local mills from the fire which broke out last Friday at Vale’s iron ore distribution centre in Teluk Rubiah in Malaysia’s Perak State will be limited. In a statement issued late last Friday in Asia, Vale officially confirmed that a fire had hit one of the transfer houses of the belt conveyor system at its distribution centre but insisted operations should be back to normal within about two weeks.
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Chinese iron ore market participants have largely shrugged off Vale’s announcement Wednesday that it was resuming operations on systems at its Tubarão Port Complex after a week’s stoppage, saying that the iron ore product most affected – Tubarão pellets – has little share in the Chinese market.
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A fire broke out at the iron ore blending plant at Vale’s distribution center in Teluk Rubiah in Malaysia’s Perak State on Friday afternoon, according to Chinese steel mill sources in touch with the Brazilian miner, with all production and transportation at the plant temporarily suspended.
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Jiangsu Shagang Group, China’s largest electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaker, told Mysteel on Tuesday that for now, it has no plans to adjust its steel scrap procurement prices, though many of its domestic EAF and blast furnace counterparts have already raised their prices.
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Ferrous market participants in and out of China including ferrous commodities speculators and investors are assessing the actual affection on Vale’s iron ore output based on the press releases since the tailings dam collapses on January 25 at the Feijão mine in Brumadinho in Southern Brazil’s Minas Gerais.
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Iron ore market participants in and out of China are divided on the near-term outlook after price spikes firstly on the Singapore Exchange over February 4-8 and then on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) on February 11, the first working day in China after the Chinese New Year holiday.
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As Brazilian miner Vale continues the assess the grim cost, human and financial, of last week’s tailing dam collapse at its Feijão mine in Southern Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, buyers and traders of its iron ore in China are divided on the impact the disaster might have on their business.
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A morning online meeting held on January 30 saw creditors to bankrupt Chinese steelmaker Bohai Steel Group Co (Bohai Steel) approve a draft restructuring plan for the mill, with private steelmaker Delong Holdings Limited to be Bohai’s rescuer, an official from major Bohai shareholder Tianjin Iron & Steel Group confirmed on Thursday.
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Australian miner Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) shipped a total of 42.5 million tonnes of iron ore over October-December last year, up 6% on quarter and by 5% on year and taking July-December shipments – the first half of the company’s 2019 financial year – to 82.7 million tonnes, according to FMG’s latest quarterly report published on January 31. The company provided no on-year comparison for its H1 output.
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Production
summary
Note: Tonnage references are based on wet metric tonnes. Fortescue
ships product with approximately 8-9% free moisture.
Source: FMG, released on January 31
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China’s Hebei Iron & Steel Group Co (HBIS), a leading steel producer in the Northern Hebei province, will be able to deepen its footprint in the overseas steel market via its latest agreement with India’s Tata Steel on January 28 to acquire a 70% stake in the latter’s steel assets in Southeast Asia, HBIS disclosed on the day of the sign-off.
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Vale announced on January 29 (Rio de Janeiro time) to “decommission all its dams built by the upstream method”, and as a result, 40 million tonnes/year of iron ore capacity including the pellet feed to 11 million t/y pellet capacity are expected to be affected.
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Brazilian miner Vale has announced new emergency measures and financial and psychological support to those affected following the collapse of the tailings dam at its Feijão iron ore complex in Minas Gerais state on January 25 where rescue work continues.
