China smelter group agrees to lower Q1 copper charges
The charges tend to fall when ore supply declines and rise when more concentrate is available.
The benchmark CFR import price of 62% iron ore fines at China’s Tianjin fell $6.10 or 4.4% on Thursday, continuing a sharp correction since hitting 16-month highs mid-February.
Iron ore was changing hands at $132.90 a tonne, a three-month, after losing ground seven days in a row.
The steelmaking raw material is still up over 50% up from three-year lows reached in September.
The pullback is being ascribed to the end of restocking by Chinese steel mills – the country’s furnaces consume 60% of the global seaborne trade – and a fall in inventories at the country’ ports.
Last week stockpiles at China’s 30 biggest ports fell to 62 million tonnes, a fresh three -year low, and down from 100 million tonnes in February last year.
China’s iron ore imports hit a record 743 million tonnes in 2012, but have now slowed considerably with February imports registering a 16% drop from a year ago and a 14% slide from January.
Growth in the second largest economy in the world has been driven by a construction boom, but new restrictions on property to stop local governments racking up debt and over-investing in the name of urbanization, are set to cool demand for raw materials.
