Iron ore port inventory up 3%

According to data tracked by SMM, 74 ships arrived at domestic main ports in February 14-20. Arrivals of cargoes are estimated to stand at 11.23 million mt, down 1.24 million mt from the previous session and down 1.06 million mt year on year.

The nickel ore inventory at Chinese ports dipped 400,000 wmt on week to 7.88 million wmt as of February 18. Total Ni content stood at 61,800 mt. The total inventory at seven major ports stood at around 3.76 million mt in Ni content, 400,000 mt in Ni contentlower than Friday February 11.

As of December 3, the iron ore inventories across the 35 Chinese ports tracked by SMM totalled 150.41 million mt, an increase of 1.66 million mt from the previous week and 29.35 million mt year-on-year. The daily average shipments from the 35 ports dropped 43,000 mt on a weekly basis to 2.68 million mt last week.

Iron ore prices have continued to decline recently. Iron ore futures touched limit down in the morning market. The most-traded 2201 contracts created a record low of 565.5 yuan/mt, weakening the ferrous metals prices.

The concentrate price index of domestic iron ore stood at 994.8 yuan/mt last week, up 7.4% from a week earlier. Domestic iron ore prices in the main regions rose 20-130 yuan/mt, mainly due to the following reasons. First, the steel mills have higher demand for iron ore after the National Day holiday. And the domestic ore output in some regions trended lower amid power rationing, torrential rain, transportation restrictions, but recovered slowly from the second half of last week. Meanwhile, the price increases of imported iron ore early last week boosted the domestic ore prices.

Offers of spot iron ore rose 5-10 yuan/mt on Monday May 14 as prices of futures continued to perform strongly

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A total of 73 vessels with 10.72 million mt of iron ore are expected to arrive at major Chinese ports during May 4-10, SMM learned.

Iron ore inventory at 35 Chinese ports amounted to 149.32 million mt as of Friday March 23, up 1.32 million mt from a week ago, SMM data showed.

Iron ore inventory at 35 Chinese ports stood at 141.99 million mt as of Friday February 9, SMM data showed.