[SMM Chromium Flash] China's Chrome Ore Port Inventory Falls to 5.18 Mt as of Sep 18, Ending Two-Week Build

As of September 18, 2026, China's total chrome ore inventory at ports fell to 5.181 million mt, down 136,300 mt (-2.56%) from 5.318 million mt on September 11, marking the first weekly draw after two straight weeks of buildup.

Tianjin Port accounted for nearly the entire pullback, dropping 123,400 mt (-2.63%) to 4.562 million mt, still 88.1% of the national total and essentially unchanged in share from the prior week. Qinzhou plus Fangchenggang eased a further 2,900 mt (-0.70%) to 409,300 mt, while Chongqing posted the sharpest proportional decline, down 10,000 mt (-11.11%) to 80,000 mt. Lianyungang, Shanghai, the smaller Caofeidian-grouped ports and Zhanjiang were all unchanged week-on-week, meaning the entire national draw was concentrated between Tianjin, Qinzhou/Fangchenggang and Chongqing.

The draw at Tianjin lines up with a modest but real improvement in downstream sentiment. High-carbon ferrochrome's weekly average slipped again for the week ended September 11, to RMB 7,850 per 50mt basis ton, down RMB 50, extending the multi-month softening on oversupply. But stainless steel futures snapped a five-week losing streak over September 14-18, edging up as collapsing nickel costs handed mills back some margin, a shift that likely nudged Inner Mongolia's ferrochrome producers, the main consumers of Tianjin-warehoused ore, toward more active drawdown of port stocks ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. That said, a parallel read-across from this week's manganese ore market, where pre-holiday stockpiling was described as falling short of expectations, suggests the pull is real but not aggressive, consistent with a moderate rather than sharp reversal here. On the supply side, the pullback also coincides with the likely landing window for cargoes that left South African and Mozambican ports in mid-August, when departures fell more than 37% week-on-week in back-to-back weeks, a thinner inbound pipeline that would have compounded the draw just as onshore demand ticked up