CNY Holiday Arrangements of Domestic Iron Ore Mines

SHANGHAI, Jan 17 (SMM) - First, let's take a look at the traders of domestic iron ore. According to SMM survey, since the steel mills will maintain production during the Chinese New Year holiday, some traders still have orders to deliver and thus have no specific holiday arrangements. The holiday arrangements of domestic iron ore mines are as follows.

Shangdong: Large-scale mines will be closed since January 19-20, and resumed the operation on January 28-29. The dressing plants will be shut down during the same period.

Anhui: Some large mines start to take holiday lately and will resume the operation around January 30. No production suspension plan has been heard from dressing plants so far. 

Tangshan, Hebei: Most mines and dressing plants have been closed due to a lack of explosives. The workers already took holiday, while some will be off this week. The operation is scheduled to start around January 27. At the same time, some independent dressing plants plan to maintain operation during the holiday.

Chengde, Hebei: Some mines claimed to resume the operation around January 27, but the production at the dressing plants will extend. 

Hanxing, Hebei: A large private mines said that its dressing plant has remained closed due to explosive shortage. The holiday already started from a week ago, and is to end around January 29.

Zhangjiakou, Hebei: Some mines said that their holidays will last from January 16 to January 27. 

Liaoning: Some small mines reported that their dressing plants already halted the production since half a month ago due to cold weather. The specific date for re-opening has not yet been determined. Local large mines will have short holiday, with about 2-3 days of break for dressing plants. 

Shanxi: The production of the main producing area, Dai County, has stagnated under the persisting influence of accidents. Yet, according to SMM survey, local mines are expected to resume production after the holiday thanks to the support from government. It is expected that a number of mines will resume their production in February with the recovery of explosive supply. At the same time, SMM research shows that a large state-owned mine already resumed the production in November, and several private mines, who have passed special inspections, will also resume the production soon. However, a private mine has not yet resume the production for the strict inspection following its accident. 

Generally speaking, the domestic iron ore mines will have 7-day CNY holiday, while most of the dressing plants will still be under operation during the holiday. The supply has become tight, but the demand is also small as steel mills already completed stocking before the holiday. In this scenario, the supply and demand in the market are both weak.