Completion of pre-holiday purchases of iron ore in China

Chinese steelmakers have more or less completed their iron ore purchases for consumption over the long national holiday of October 1-8 by the week ending September 25 and were prepared for possible logistics disruptions during the upcoming holidays, market sources say.

By the end of last week, steel mills in eastern China had given up purchasing iron ore reserves at the port, a Shanghai source said.

"Until now, many Chinese steel mills have been setting aside relatively sufficient stocks of iron ore from earlier orders, especially for sea freight, and others have also resupplied in small quantities when prices have plummeted earlier to keep them running (during the holidays)." - he clarified.

As of September 25, Australian shipments of PORTDEX ore 62% Fe fell to 896 yuan /ton FOT Qingdao, including 13% VAT, the lowest since August 3 or below another 36 yuan /ton per week.
Stocks of imported sinter fines at 64 blast-furnace plants in China reached an eight-month high of about 18.5 million tons, up 1.95 million tons or 11.8% in two weeks. ...

By September 24, stocks of imported iron ore of various forms at 247 mills, including tonnage at their factories, ports and on the water, also increased in the fifth week, increasing another 3.67 million tonnes in a week to about 117 million. tons, which would be enough for nearly 38 days of use at current daily consumption reportedly.

“Many steel mills in Tangshan do not even plan to stockpile a lot of iron ore for the next few weeks, as some estimates suggest that their existing reserves will last three to five days after the holiday,” notes a market watcher from Tangshan, Hebei province in the north. China. , pointed out.

In addition, he said many steel mills in Tangshan have cut iron ore consumption as they have reduced their sinter and blast furnace capacity utilization since September 22, following a local government order to reduce pollution until further notice.

Moreover, “the interest of local steel mills to buy more iron ore from ports also declined last week due to the temporary suspension of freight traffic from ports in Tangshan as part of local government efforts to reduce air pollution,” he said.

Thus, from September 21 to September 25, the daily trading volume of port stocks of imported iron ore between 52 Chinese trading houses fell by 22.3% to an average of 1.16 million tonnes per day, according to Mysteel's tracking of transactions between traders and traders in steel factories.

In the short term, the consumption of iron ore is