Iron Ore Port Inventory Rose for Ten Consecutive Weeks, Shipments from Ports Continued to Decline

SHANGHAI, Dec 7 (SMM) – 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.

Tangshan issued plan to fight air pollution, which imposes control on pollution sources like heavy diesel trucks, leading to a slight decline in shipments from the two major ports in the region. Shipments from the two major ports in Tangshan are expected to continue to decrease this week as the pollution control may be extended.

It is expected that the increase of overall port inventory will slow down as the recent overhaul of overseas ports has resulted in a sharp decline in arrivals from Australia and Brazil.