Iron ore recovers as Port Hedland shipments to China hit two-year low

Royal India

11/03/2021 05:03

* Dalian iron ore up as much as 3.6% after two-day fall
    * SGX iron ore recoups early losses, rises for second day 
    * Port Hedland Feb iron ore shipments to China hit 30.7 mln
T 

    By Enrico Dela Cruz
    March 11 (Reuters) - Benchmark Asian iron ore futures rose
on Thursday as data showed monthly shipments of the steelmaking
ingredient to China from Australia's Port Hedland dropped to the
lowest in two years.
    Shipments from Port Hedland, the world's biggest iron ore
export hub, totalled 30.73 million tonnes in February, when top
steel producer China typically imports less due to the Lunar New
Year holidays.
    That is the lowest since March 2019 and compares with 35.6
million tonnes in January and 33.3 million tonnes in February
last year, data from Australia's Pilbara Ports Authority showed.
    Port Hedland is used by three of Australia's top four iron
ore miners -- BHP Group  BHP.AX , Fortescue Metals Group
 FMG.AX  and Hancock Prospecting.
    The most-traded May iron ore on China's Dalian Commodity
Exchange  DCIOcv1  rose 2.8% to 1,065 yuan ($163.89) a tonne by
0330 GMT, after earlier climbing to 1,073.50 yuan.
    Iron ore's front-month contract on the Singapore Exchange
 SZZFJ1  was up 0.9% at $160.05 a tonne.
    The Port Hedland data brought supply risks to the fore
again, having fuelled a recent rally that drove iron ore to
multi-year peaks.
    Spot iron ore was steady at $166 a tonne on Wednesday,
SteelHome consultancy data showed, after dropping 7.5% from a
record high of $179.50 hit last week as stricter anti-pollution
measures in China's top steelmaking city of Tangshan sparked
demand concerns.
    China's January-February iron ore imports rose 2.8% from a
year earlier, a lacklustre increase after last year's
record-high volume.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2JP06L
    "Constraints on iron ore supply kept import growth limited,"
commodity strategists at ANZ said in a March 8 note. "Positive
steel mill margins and stronger demand for exports should keep
China's iron ore import demand elevated."
    Construction steel rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange
 SRBcv1  slipped 0.2%, while both hot-rolled coil  SHHCcv1  and
stainless steel  SHSScv1  gained 0.7%.
    Dalian coking coal  DJMcv1  advanced 2.6% and coke  DCJcv1 
climbed 1.3%.
    

 (Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; Editing by Aditya
Soni)
 ((enrico.delacruz@thomsonsonreuters.com))