Iron Ore Arrivals at Chinese Ports Shrank 130,000 mt on Week

SHANGHAI, Aug 3 (SMM) - According to data tracked by SMM, 74 ships arrived at domestic main ports from July 25-31. Arrivals of cargoes are estimated to stand at 11.85 million mt, down 130,000 mt from the previous week, and a decrease of 3.11 million mt from the same period last year.

Shipments that departed Australian ports were estimated to decrease 170,000 mt week on week to 16.53 million mt, and that from Brazilian ports increased 670,000 million mt to 7.79 million mt on a weekly basis, up 14.1 million mt on the year.

Futures and spot prices of iron ore rebounded slightly this week after last week’s sharp decline. The intensive maintenance since July in some companies have been completed recently. The in-plants inventories were low, and some companies purchased large amounts of iron ore, driving the iron ore prices to rebound. The profits for steel mills also rose rapidly, boosting the market prices.

However, the iron ore price trend will still depend on the actual implementation of production cuts.