Iron ore arrivals at Chinese ports shrank 550,000 mt on week

SHANGHAI, Jul 20 (SMM) – A total of 81 vessels carrying 12.63 million mt of iron ore arrived at major Chinese ports during July 11-17, SMM estimates. This was down 550,000 mt from the previous week, and down 2.59 million mt from the same period last year.

For the same week, iron ore deliveries leaving Australian ports fell 770,000 mt on a weekly basis to 15.54 million mt. This was down 7.1% from the same period last year.

Shipments that departed Brazilian ports were estimated to decrease 640,000 mt week on week to 6.63 million mt. This was up 13.9% from the same period last year.

Although iron ore arrivals at Chinese ports decreased for two consecutive periods, domestic port inventories increased for three consecutive periods. With the gradual expansion of the production reduction range of domestic steel enterprises, there is still room for compression of iron ore demand in the later period, and some steel enterprises gradually increase the use of medium and low-grade ore, so there is still a certain limit for the iron ore spot market to continue to rise.