China imports record volume of iron ore in March
April 17, 2009
April 14 (Xinhua) — China’s steel industry overestimated the country’s demand for iron ore and as a result imported a record high amount of the material in March.
A surge of domestic steel output and price increases in the beginning of 2009 raised market expectations. Many domestic steel mills and traders increased orders for iron ore in February and March as they anticipated demand would continue growing, said Liang Shuhe, deputy-director with the Foreign Trade Department of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), at an industry conference in the port city of Tianjin Monday.
China’s iron ore imports topped 52.08 million tonnes in March, setting a monthly record high. It beat the last record which was just set in February. That’s when the country imported 46.74 million tonnes of iron ore.
In the first quarter, China imported a total of 130 million tonnes of iron ore. In 2008, iron ore imports totaled 440 million tonnes.
“The imports in March mostly came from orders made in February. Iron ore was priced at 80 U.S. dollars a tonne then, but dwindled to 60 U.S. dollars a tonne now. It means huge unrealized losses for steel mills and traders who betted on price hikes,” said Du Wei, an analyst on iron ore with Umetal.com.
Those unrealized losses for the 52.08 million tonnes of iron ore imported in March could be about 1 billion U.S. dollars, Du said.
Liang said iron ore prices were hinged to steel prices.
“Domestic steel prices have dropped and will further dwindle. Thus it’s inevitable for iron ore prices to go down,” Liang said.
Iron ore stockpiled at ports stood at 70 million tonnes in March, nearing a historic high, according to anonymous sources within the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters.
Due to declining iron ore prices, an increasing number of domestic iron ore mines are closing down, said Zhang Ye, deputy-general-manager of China National Minerals Co., Ltd.. No specific figures were available.
“About 90 percent of China’s iron ore mines are suffering from losses,” Du said. “Steel is a kind of product that could be recycled and thus its scarcity could not be exacerbated in the long term.”
Tags: prices, imports, iron oreRelated Posts:
China’s industrial output grows in first 2 months
April 6, 2009
CHINA’S industrial output rose 5.2 percent year on year in the first two months of 2009, with growth slowing from December, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in Beijing yesterday.
The figure was 0.5 percentage points lower than in December, dragged down by plummeting exports and high inventories, according to MIIT.
In February alone, however, industrial output expanded 11 percent from a year earlier, showing that the downtrend appeared to be easing.
Light and heavy industries grew 6.5 percent and 2.7 percent in the two-month period, 1.6 percentage points and 2 percentage points below the respective December figures.
Major industrial exports fell 17.1 percent to 896.8 billion yuan (US$131.3 billion). That represented a 31.9-percentage-point decline from the 2008 level, MIIT said.
Qi Jingmei, an economist with the State Information Center, told Xinhua the figures showed that the Chinese industry was still feeling the impact of the global downturn.
Figures from the National Bureau of Statistics also reflected the impact of the downturn. Profits of major industrial firms shrank 37.3 percent year on year during the first two months of 2009, the bureau said on Friday.
Falling exports also caused declines in light industries like textiles, which in turn affected the upstream sectors, according to Gao Shanwen, chief economist of Essence Securities.
But increases in fixed asset investment, new loans and retail sales in the first two months would help offset the slide in industrial output, Qi said.
Retail sales grew 15.2 percent in the first two months to 2 trillion yuan, while urban fixed asset investment rose 26.5 percent year on year to 1.027 trillion yuan, the bureau said.
Tags: China, Industrial, industryRelated Posts:
Non-ferrous metal industry sees signs of rebound
March 20, 2009
China’s non-ferrous metal industry is showing some signs of recovery with major companies recording narrower losses, an industry association official said on Thursday.Sixty-nine of the country’s leading 73 non-ferrous companies recorded a combined loss of 3.8 billion yuan ($556 million)Â in the Jan-Feb period, according to Kang Yi, chairman of the China Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Association (CNIA).
The average monthly net loss, or 1.9 billion yuan, is much lower than the loss of 5.9 billion yuan major metal companies recorded in December 2008, Kang said, adding 53 metal companies saw their losses narrow during the first two months of this year.
For the 2008 full year, the industry earned a profit of about 80 billion yuan, down 45 percent compared with 2007, according to the association.
Source: China Daily
Tags: industry, China, metalsRelated Posts:
Sales may fall 44% at shipping giant
March 18, 2009
CHINA Shipping Development Co, the dry-bulk arm of the nation’s second-biggest shipping group, expects sales to tumble 44 percent this year as a slowing economy saps demand for raw materials.
Sales will likely drop to 9.83 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) from 17.6 billion yuan last year, the Shanghai-based company said in a statement to the city’s stock exchange yesterday. That’s lower than all 18 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg News.
Dry-bulk shipping rates have fallen 83 percent from a record in May, as China’s waning growth curbs demand for iron ore and coal. China Shipping Development has already agreed to price cuts of 39 percent for cargos equal to about two-thirds of its 2008 domestic dry-bulk volume.
The company expects operating costs to fall 39 percent this year to 6.81 billion yuan. It will sell 5 billion yuan of mid-term notes in the first half.
The shipping company plans to add 19 vessels this year, including 14 oil tankers and five dry-bulk ships. The company had a fleet of 167 ships as of December 31.
Net income rose 17 percent last year to 5.37 billion yuan after the company locked in domestic bulk rates at the beginning of the year. Shareholders will get a 0.30-yuan dividend per share.
The shipping line dropped 7.1 percent to HK$6.59 (85 US cents) in Hong Kong trading yesterday before the earnings announcement. It has lost 65 percent in the past year, compared with a 71-percent decline for China Cosco Holdings Co, the country’s largest bulk-shipping line.
Tags: Shipping, ChinaRelated Posts:
China to cut taxes to zero and boost weak exports
March 11, 2009
China to cut taxes to zero and boost weak exports
Â
By Jamil Anderlini in Beijing      Source: Financial Times
Â
Published: March 10 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 10 2009 02:00
Â
China will reduce export taxes to zero and give more financial support to exporters as it tries to increase its share of global trade in the current crisis, the country’s commerce minister announced on Monday.
Â
China would “use all possible measures to ensure the stable growth of our exports and prevent a large drop in external demand”, Chen Deming said in an interview published by a Communist party newspaper.
Â
“We should increase our share of the global market . . . We must transform ourselves from a big export nation to a strong export nation,” he continued… ( the rest of article at FT)
Tags: China, zero, taxRelated Posts:
