Chinese iron ore import surges by 23% MoM
Oriental Morning Post reported that China's iron ore import has risen a surprising 22.4% from the month before to 46.74 million tonnes in February which comes against the backdrop of almost halving steel export from the year ago in the month.
Steelmakers and traders are adopting bottom fishing attitude on excessive optimism towards future economic outlook.
According to Mysteel senior analyst Mr Zeng Jiesheng that domestic steel price has started to pick up after touching the bottom in mid - November and many mills have achieved profit and begun to replenish ore stock in light of cheaper ore imports due to falling ore imports price and freight cost. He said that however, massive steel capacity utilization roars on despite export plunge, and ore importers should be more cautious in purchasing iron ore given the economic grim.
Domestic steel market is going through downward corrections from mid February after an upward blip in previous two months. The gross profit of most products has plummeted to CNY 200 per tonne right now, and steel mills may suffer further loss if steel export shows no sign of uptrend in following months. In fact, steel export is expected to drop further in Mar as a result of much worse economy in overseas market. Market insiders suggest that Beijing hike the tax rebate for steel exports to help shore up the market, and the ugly export figure might prompt the authority to unveil that policy within March.
(Sourced from Oriental Morning Post)
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