Iron Ore Arrivals at Chinese Ports Down 0.27 million mt on Week

SHANGHAI, Nov 23 (SMM) – According to data tracked by SMM, 79 ships arrived at domestic main ports in November 15-21. Arrivals of cargoes are estimated to stand at 11.83 million mt, down 0.27 million mt from the previous week and down 2.69 million mt year on year.

Shipments that departed Australian ports were estimated to increase 2.59 million mt week on week to 18.89 million mt, up 3.82 million mt on the year. And that from Brazilian ports increased 0.79 million mt to 5.18 million mt on a weekly basis, down 1.82 million mt on the year. The total arrivals of imported ore dropped slightly again from the prior week, while the combined shipments from Australia and Brazil rose as a whole.

Recently, the market has heightened their estimate regarding steel mills’ resuming production due to positive news from the downstream real estate sector, on the combination of the early completion of crude steel output control target by some mills. The intraday most-trade iron ore contract has surged by more than 9% as the time of this writing. On the other hand, however, coke prices have been falling for seven consecutive rounds, and the ore prices are also at a low level, restoring part of the steel mills’ profits. Hence, ore prices will gain some support in the short term.