As of September 24, the iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totaled 127.35 million mt, a decrease of 1.94 million mt from the previous week, but up 8.45 million mt year on year. Recent arrivals of imported iron ore at ports fell sharply, and the shipment congestion at some ports did not ease, so the port inventories continued to decline. The daily average deliveries from the 35 ports increased 62,000 mt on a weekly basis to 2.73 million mt this week. The daily average deliveries from the major ports in Jiangsu increased significantly. However, the steel mills in Shandong, Tangshan and other regions did not increase in their purchases much, and the deliveries declined from the previous week. Some steel mills with no production curtailment may restock raw materials before the National Day holiday this week, and the daily average deliveries from the ports may increase slightly. The market atmosphere warmed up when DCE iron ore futures market continued bouncing trends. Total transactions in the physical port stock market increased with price hike of 15-30yuan/mt over yesterday. PBF was closed at 765-780yuan/mt in Shandong market and 790-800yuan/mt in Tangshan market separately, with shrinking price spread between the two areas.
Source: Metals Market Index (MMi)