MMi Daily Iron Ore Index Report September 10 2021

As of September 10, iron ore inventories across 35 ports tracked by SMM totalled 122.13 million mt, a decrease of 420,000 mt from the previous week, but up 13.95 million mt year-on-year. Daily average deliveries from the 35 ports decreased by 76,000 mt on a weekly basis to 2.6 million mt. Further declines in imported ore prices and output cuts in Handan city and Jiangsu curbed purchase activities. Moreover, arrivals of imported ore declined sharply recently. This, coupled with limited improvement in operation efficiency at some ports, lowered port inventories slightly. Average daily shipments from ports alongside the Yangtze River and Shandong decreased significantly mainly due to the overhaul of blast furnaces at many steel mills in Jiangsu, weakening purchasing by the local markets. Taking into account that some steel mills will restock in small volumes next week ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, average daily shipments from ports are likely to slow down. DCE iron ore futures fluctuated narrowly today, the spot quotation in the morning decreased by around 5yuan/mt over yesterday. Approaching weekend, steel mills were not actively buy today while traders continued to sell with suitable price. PBF at Shandong port dealt 955-965yuan/mt, down 5-15yuan/mt; PBF at Tangshan port dealt 1020-1025yuan/mt; PBF at Jiangnei port dealt 970yuan/mt, down 5 yuan/mt. Affected by energy-consumption activity in Jiangsu province, many local steel mills begin to overhaul their BFs; according to SMM calculation, daily pig iron will decrease 20500 mt, thus iron ore demand will decrease 35000 mt/day.

Source: Metals Market Index (MMi)