Impact of typhoon lowered port operation efficiency, stocks at 35 ports kept dwindling down this week

SHANGHAI, Aug 14 (SMM) –

As of August 11, iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totaled 116.35 million mt, down 3.41 million mt WoW and down 18.72 million mt YoY. Given waning impact of the typhoon, the daily average imported iron ore shipments from the 35 ports added 168,000 mt on a weekly basis to 3.073 million mt this week. However, the unloading of ships arriving at the port amid fallout of weather factors in the early stage will require a certain time to recover, and the efficiency of port operations was lower than usual. Although profits of the steel mills are acceptable, steel mills had less replenishing demand for iron ore, while speculative demand slumped as the delivery month approaches. Buyers were in a prudent mood. A significantly part of the reason behind a large drop in port inventory was the typhoon. According to the picture of the ports tracked by SMM, there may be concentrated unloading at ports, but market activity will be minimal, suppressed by positive news. Under such circumstance, inventory at 35 ports may pick up in a near future.