At
present, most of the steel mills alongside Yangtze River have operated
productions as usual. Due to the large amount of iron ore replenishment
before the Spring Festival, most steel mills still have more than 30 days
of inventory for steelmaking consumption, bringing slack replenishment
plans for February. In addition, there is little impact for mills whose
raw materials are shipped by rail and water transportation. But there is a
greater impact on shipping goods by automobile transport. From SteelHome
survey, due to the restrictions, vehicles of non-local license plates are
restricted to transport goods. Therefore, iron ore products are unlikely
shipped from ports, affecting the stockpiles to some extent in the later
stages. In Hubei, center of virus outbreak, some steelmakers have planned
to reduce production.
Meanwhile,
most iron ore traders are waiting for the further market developments as
huge declines in the seaborne price during the Spring Festival. Some with
optimistic outlook have adopted a single negotiation method for deals
because of the declined iron ore shipments from Brazil and increased
replenishments from mills, being inactive in shipping iron ore products at a
low price.
Due to the impact of strong winds and fog during the
Spring Festival, iron ore arrivals have declined at Taicang Port, with a
drop of 0.15 million tons to 2 million tons of iron ore stockpiles in this
port. Meanwhile, iron ore inventory has also decreased in Jiangyin Port,
but the inventory will increase after shipments reduced.
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(To contact the reporter on this story: cody.wang@steelhome.cn or 86-555-2238837) |