37 million tons iron ore congested at major China ports

37 million tons iron ore congested at major China ports

In the first two months, iron ore import at Jiangsu port has soared. For detail, iron ore import during Jan-Feb,05 at Jiangsu port has reached 4.56 million tons with 360 million US$ in trade value, up 93% & 110% year on year respectively. And iron ore import from India, Australia as well as Brazil has totaled 3.206 million tons, 537'000 tons and 335'000 tons, with Indian iron ore taking the lead in total import quantity. Meanwhile, the surging import has not only occurred at Jiangsu port. Statistics data by China Customs shows that during Jan-Feb,05, China iron ore import quantity has increased 23.7% year o year and import amount has increased 38.2% year o year. On the point of market demand, China pig iron output in 2004 has totaled about 250 million tons, up 36.3 million tons against that of 2003, and China domestic iron ore output has broken 300 million tons, up 39 million tons year o year, thus consumption of imported iron ore is estimated to reach around 188 million tons in 2004. Based on China Customs, China has totally imported 208 million tons of iron ore in 2004, up 40.48% of 59.97mt year o year. Thus more than 20 million tons imported iron ore has exceeded consumption, resulting in expanding congestion at ports and warehouses. Mr Luo Bingsheng, Deputy president of China CISA have expressed that by the year end of 2004, China iron ore inventory at ports have totaled about 37 million tons, up about 15 million tons against that at the year beginning, symbolizing that at least 15 million tons imported iron ore have not been consumed in 2004. Though China has suffered 37 million tons iron ore congestion at port, while from the year beginning up to today, iron ore import trend has never slowed down with average monthly import quantity of 20 million tons. It is commonly conceived that the high iron ore price is mainly pushed by market speculation of certain enterprises at home and abroad at moment.