News Room - Business/Economics

Posted on 28 Jul 2023

China mills' imported iron ore stocks hover low

After gaining by 36,300 tonnes on week, the stocks of imported iron ore sintering fines being held by the 64 Chinese steelmakers surveyed regularly by Mysteel were still hovering at the low level of 8.7 million tonnes as of July 26, a huge 34% lower on year, the latest survey results showed. Market sources cited consistently prudent buying among steelmakers for the relatively scant stocks of ore they're holding.

Recently, most steel mills have maintained a cautious attitude towards iron ore buying, as now is China's off season for steel consumption, observed a Shanghai-based market watcher.

Mysteel's daily tracking of trading business at China's major ports showed that so far this week iron ore trading volume had thinned to an average of 919,333 tonnes/day, declining by 16% from last week's average.

On the other hand, "iron ore demand among those mills which received notices to keep their crude steel output flat on year this year hasn't weakened much yet, due to their stable production of steel currently," the source added.

This week, Mysteel learned that some steelmakers in North China's Tianjin and East China's Anhui had received verbal requests from the central government to ensure that their crude steel output for 2023 remains at the same level as last year, as reported. No official notification has been issued as yet however.

"Those mills could still earn some money from selling finished steel, so they won't choose to control their output for now," he explained.

As a result, the daily consumption of imported iron ore sintering fines among the same 64 mills over July 20-26 dipped by just 0.8% on week to average at 552,300 tonnes/day, Mysteel's survey showed.

The inventories of iron ore fines held by these mills were sufficient for 15 days' use at their present daily consumption rate, one day shorter than for the previous survey period.

Source:Mysteel Global