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Prices of imported iron ore in China's portside and seaborne markets increased on May 20, while trading activities remained lukewarm.
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On May 20, the most-traded nickel contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) for delivery next month closed at Yuan 212,800/tonne ($31,835/t) when the daytime trading ended, having surged by Yuan 12,280/t from last Friday's settlement price, according to the exchange's statistics.
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The 186 Chinese mining companies Mysteel surveys fortnightly continued to see their daily iron ore concentrates output increase over May 6-19, new data show, while their stocks of concentrates fell at the same time. The results reflected the production resumption at some miners and stronger buying for ore among steelmakers in North and East China where previous COVID-19 lockdowns were relaxed gradually, market sources said.
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Over January-April, China's coking coal imports from all origins increased by 11.7% on year to reach 16.5 million tonnes, with the growth higher than the 9% on-year growth in the first three months, according to recent data from China's General Administration of Customs (GACC).
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Inventories of finished stainless steel at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China's two core stainless trading hubs, emptied by another 8,192 tonnes or 1.1% on week over May 13-19 to reach 751,715 tonnes, according to Mysteel's new survey.
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For March, Japan's core machinery orders from domestic users other than shipbuilders and power equipment makers increased 7.1% on month in value to Yen 869.5 billion ($6.8 billion), or the first on-month drop in three months, according to the release by the Japanese government's Cabinet Office on May 19.
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Inventories of imported iron ore at China's 45 major ports under Mysteel's survey continued to decline to a seven-month low of 135.6 million tonnes over May 13-19, thinning for the eighth week by another 4.4 million tonnes or 3.1% on week, with the daily discharge rate hitting Mysteel's record high while new ore arrivals decreased.
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Over May 13-19, the blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China's 247 steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey had climbed for the fourth week, up by another 0.38 percentage point on week to 88.66%, as more blast furnaces in North China had resumed their operations, Mysteel Global noted.
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Over May 12-18, total coke production from 230 Chinese independent coking plants under Mysteel's survey remained largely stable, down by a comparatively small 600 tonnes/day on week to 599,800 t/d. Accordingly, the average coking capacity utilization rate of these surveyed coke producers also appeared stable, down by a tiny 0.07 percentage points on week to 82.71%.
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Kyoei Steel, Japan's largest rebar producer, has decided to keep its rebar base prices unchanged on month at Yen 120,000/tonne ($937/t) for June domestic sales, to give the market another month to digest the previous hikes, the company announced on May 19.
