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.”
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Tianjin Port cargo throughput up in 2008
January 14, 2009
Tianjin Port, the largest in north China, handled 354 million tonnes — 8.5 million TEUs — in the past year, a year-on-year increase of 19.7%
When Tianjin Port opened in 1952, it was a small, shallow-water harbor capable of handling less than 700,000 tonnes of cargo a year. It has since become a deep-water port with many specialized berths.
In 2007, it handled 300 million tonnes of cargo and 7.1 million TEUs of container cargo, which put it in the sixth and 20th place in the world, respectively.
There are more than 400 ship movements at the port each month to all points of the globe.
Source: CargoNews Asia
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China’s expanding transport system
August 15, 2008
An increasingly advanced transportation system is handling massive human and cargo movements within China. Here is a collection of transport statistics. All data for 2007 unless otherwise stated.
Highways: World’s second-largest system at 3.58 million km, of which 53,900 km were expressways. Passenger capacity exceeded 20.5 billion and freight volume reached 16.4 billion tonnes.
Railways: Total length 78,000 km, of which 24,400 km were electrified, ranking third after Russia and Germany. Length in service 6 percent of world total but carried 25 percent of world traffic. Ridership was 1.36 billion, up 8 percent year-on-year. Freight volume 3.12 billion tonnes, up 8.6 percent.
Fastest train runs 350 km (217 miles) per hour between the capital, Beijing, and neighboring Tianjin.
Subways: Six cities have subways — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taipei and Nanjing. Systems under construction in eight other cities.
Beijing system ridership exceed 613 million.
Ports: Thirteen ports, each with annual throughput exceeding 100 million tonnes; eight among world’s top 50 container ports (including Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian and Qingdao). Total throughput at Shanghai 560 million tonnes. More than 3,800 port berths, of which more than 1,000 are above 1,000 tonnes.
Merchant fleet total deadweight tonnage 60 million, fourth in world.
Airlines: Routes total 1,506, of which 1,216 were domestic and 290 were international connecting 91 cities. Airports total 152, handling 185.8 million persons, 4.02 million tonnes of cargo.
Five privately-run airlines and six joint ventures.
Source: Xinhua News
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China Auto Parts Industry
July 21, 2008
In 2007, China national macro-economy continued to maintain a rapid growth momentum. A further increase of residents’ income and price cut of passenger vehicles stimulated consumption demand to a great extent. Influenced by the factor, the auto industry continued to keep the good momentum of development recorded in the previous year. The year of 2007 witnessed a new record high in both production and consumption of auto, with auto production and consumption reaching 8.88 million units and 8.79 million units respectively.
Rapid development of China’s auto industry has provided a broad space for auto parts industry. In recent years, China’s auto parts industry has made a great progress and some innovative auto parts producers have grown up rapidly, fully demonstrating the vitality of self-brand producers of auto parts.
With the fast development of auto parts production base in Changchun, capital of Jilin province, Shiyan, a city in Hubei province, Wuhu, a city in Anhui province, Huadu, a city in Guangdong province and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Bohai Economic Circle, auto parts industry clusters and regional economic development have undoubtedly become the new hot spots in the recent years. According to incomplete statistics, China has around 1,000 auto parts based industrial parks across the country and among them 100 parks are key regional clusters or development zones.
China’s export of auto parts reached CNY14.5 billion in 2007. International auto giants have become more and more confident of the quality of China’s auto parts. Sales revenue of China’s auto parts producers reached CNY403.5 billion in 2006. It is estimated that the output value of China’s auto parts is expected to reach CNY800 billion in 2010.
Source: Shanghai Daily
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