Along with the better situation of Covid-19, most steel mills are now back to normal operation. The output has been improved which also lead to an increased demand for iron ore. China’s iron ore greatly rely on import, and during the “two sessions”, representatives appealed to resume scrap importing and set relative export measures to improve scrap recycling and steel industry upgrading.
During Jan-Apr of 2020, the iron ore import has reached 363.183 million tons, increased by 6.33% of 21.622 million tons compared with the same period of last year. While the stock hasn’t increased and the stock of 45 main ports is only 109.28 million tons until May 21, 2020, which is the record low since mid-Nov 2016.
The price of iron ore remains stable even though the prices of most raw materials and finished steel were affected due to Covid-19 and the iron ore 62% index reached USD 88.29 on May 26, USD 0.97 higher than the same period of 2019.
The high importing volume, low inventory, and stable price all indicate the necessity of improving the operation of our iron ore industry and the importance of realizing steel industry upgrading.