Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, China's ports are suffering disruptions from quarantine restrictions, bringing the speed of offloading operations to slow.

The unloading of iron ore cargoes appears to have been affected, with Refinitiv data showing 28.2 million tonnes from 211 vessels was discharged in the first 12 days of February.

The data also show that 66 ships carrying 10.3 million tons of iron ore are waiting to be unloaded, while 41 ships carrying 6.7 million tons of iron ore are unloading.

This is down from the 33.4 million tonnes achieved in the same period in February 2019, and it¡ˉs also worth noting that the Lunar New Year holidays fell in February last year, which would have slowed unloading in that month.

The daily rate of iron ore being offloaded so far in February is 2.35 million tonnes, down from 2.93 million in January and 3.09 million in December.

The data also shows that 66 vessels carrying 10.3 million tonnes of iron ore are awaiting

A further 192 vessels carrying 31.8 million tonnes are en route to China and expected to reach port by the end of the month.

All up, this gives a potential of about 77.6 million tonnes of iron ore arriving in China in February, down from 90.9 million in January and 95.8 million in December.