The iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totaled 129.29 million mt, a decrease of 330,000 mt from the previous week, but up 14.24 million mt year-on-year. The arrivals of imported iron ore at ports increased, but the efficiency of port deliveries has been restricted, driving down the port inventory. The daily average deliveries from the 35 ports decreased 74,000 mt on a weekly basis to 2.67 million mt this week. The efficiency of port deliveries in many ports decreased amid the typhoon in east China early this week. Multiple blast furnaces have closed amid energy consumption control in Jiangsu, which have sharply reduced the restocking demand for iron ore and have resulted in significant drop in daily average deliveries from the ports. However, though the volume of imported ore arrivals is expected to pick up gradually, it is difficult for port deliveries to recover significantly in the short term due to production restrictions. Port inventory is expected to accumulate. The physical port stock prices dropped further by 60-70yuan/mt when DCE iron ore futures market plummeted continuously, some traders offered larger concessions on the prices while steel mills remained tepid procurements. PBF was closed at 750-780yuan/mt, down by 55-95yuan/mt over yesterday.
Source: Metals Market Index (MMi)