Posted on 13 Oct 2015
Inbound iron ore cargoes were 86.12 million tons in September, the highest since December, from 74.1 million tons a month earlier and 84.7 million tons in September 2014, according to customs figures on Tuesday. Purchases totaled 699 million tons in the first nine months, little changed from a year earlier, the data showed. The record for imports was set in December at 86.85 million tons.
Total imports by Asia’s largest economy posted an 11th straight drop last month, in part on slumping commodity prices including iron ore. The lower prices have spurred the closure of high-cost mines in China, forcing mills to boost their reliance on iron ore shipments from overseas. At the same time, Chinese mills have stepped up a drive to sell more of their output abroad to make up for shrinking sales at home as growth slows.
“There was a little bit more activity before the ports shut down for a week or more in October,” said Ralph Leszczynski, head of research in Singapore at Banchero Costa & Co., a Genoa-based shipbroker, referring to China’s week-long Oct. 1-7 shutdown. “Both in Australia and Brazil, producers have really ramped up their export capacities.”
Ore with 62 percent content delivered to Qingdao rose 1.1 percent to $56.61 a dry ton on Monday, according to Metal Bulletin Ltd. It’s 21 percent lower this year as Rio Tinto Group, BHP Billiton Ltd. and Vale SA boosted low-cost supplies amid forecasts for the slowest Chinese growth in more than two decades.
Steel shipments from China climbed to a record 11.25 million tons in September, 16 percent higher than August, the data showed. Since the start of the year, exports expanded 27 percent to 83.1 million tons compared with the same period in 2014.
“The steel industry in China is way oversupplied because they built steel-mill capacity like crazy, ” Leszczynski said. “They don’t know what to do with the steel. They’re lucky to find enough demand for this steel.”
