Chinese Iron Ore spot market activity dies down in March

CHINA April 10 2015 9:05 AM
SHANGHAI (Scrap Register): Chinese iron ore spot market activity died down in March as an aggressive sell-off on Dalian Commodities Exchange (DCE) iron ore futures undermined buyers’ confidence, said the Steel Index.

TSI recorded 64 spot transactions in March. This was the same number as seen in February, a shorter month which also sees a week-long slowdown due to the Chinese New Year holiday. The first half of March saw the bulk of the activity.

The release of February customs data for China showed a 14% fall in imports of iron ore into the country that month. Monthly data is notoriously patchy - particularly around the longer national holidays, when customs processing is halted - but, revealingly, this was a 34% year-on-year jump on the February 2014 import level.

Iron ore exports from the Western Australian hub of Port Hedland came in at 36.6 million tonnes in March, of which 31.2 million tonnes went to China. The total was up 2.5% on February and just 6% on March 2014 (for the past year, monthly exports have been more like 30% higher).