*
April iron ore imports at 90.44 mln T
*
Jan-April imports at 385 mln T vs 354 mln T a year before
*
Steel exports at 7.93 mln T last month, up 59% y/y
*
Steel imports last month down 38.8% y/y
(Adds analyst comments in paragraphs 5-6)
BEIJING, May 9 (Reuters) - China's imports of iron ore
rose 5.1% in April from the same period the previous year,
customs data showed on Tuesday, as buyers anticipated strong
demand for the steelmaking ingredient during the peak spring
construction season.
The world's top iron ore consumer brought in 90.44 million
tonnes of the steelmaking ingredient last month, up from 86.06
million tonnes in April 2022, the General Administration of
Customs said.
Iron ore demand picked up as China's average daily hot metal
output among the surveyed 247 steel mills reached 2.45 million
tonnes in April, up 5.6% from the same period the previous year,
according to a Reuters calculation based on data from
consultancy Mysteel.
Hot metal is a blast furnace product, and output is often
used to gauge iron ore demand.
"According to our model, the usage of imported iron ore
increased by over 6% in April, and therefore there is no
surprise to see a mild year-on-year increase in imports in the
past month," said Pei Hao, a Shanghai-based senior analyst at
international brokerage firm FIS.
"The growing pace of usage exceeded that of (iron ore)
imports last month, so we believe mills replenished volumes to
meet production from ports, which contributed to a relatively
high offtake level seen in the month," he added.
The April volumes, however, were below 100.23 million tonnes
imported in March as shrinking steel margins undermined buying
interest and Cyclone Ilsa, which had threatened Australia's
northwest region, affected shipments.
Iron ore imports over January-April totalled 385 million
tonnes, up 8.6% from the same period in 2022, according to
customs, benefiting from expectations of robust downstream
demand recovery in March and April after Beijing's abrupt
abandonment of its strict zero-COVID policy late last year.
STEEL TRADE
China's exports of steel products in April rose 59.2% from
the prior year to 7.93 million tonnes and were also marginally
higher than the 7.89 million tonnes recorded in March, according
to customs data.
The country shipped 28.01 million tonnes of steel abroad
over January-April, up 55% year-on-year, according to customs.
China imported 585,000 tonnes of steel in April, down from
956,000 tonnes in the same month last year with the total
volumes in the first four months falling 40% year-on-year to 2.5
million tonnes, customs data showed.
(Reporting by Amy Lv and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing
by Himani Sarkar, Tom Hogue and Edmund Klamann)
