As of January 12, iron ore inventory across 35 ports tracked by SMM totaled 122.85 million mt, up 3.54 million mt WoW, but down 7.34 million mt YoY. Daily average deliveries from the ports increased by 64,000 mt WoW to 3.001 million mt.
As good iron ore market around Christmas made for high enthusiasm for shipping from overseas mines, more ships arrived at the ports recently. In addition, port congestion issue eased in better weather, fueling high unloading efficiency.
Under this circumstance, iron ore port arrivals mounted. In terms of shipments from the ports, with upcoming Lunar New year, steel mills had more replenishing demand, but the pace of demand was slowed down by high iron ore price.
Looking at next week, according to SMM’s tracking of the operating rate of BF, pig iron output may hike. In addition, iron ore price retraced down this week. Therefore, steel mills may speed up the pace of stockpiling next week. Given more transport ships arriving at the ports recently, port arrivals will still mount. Under this circumstance, iron ore inventory at the ports may still build up.
