West Australian iron ore exports at 2023 high

Iron ore exports from Western Australia's (WA) Pilbara region rose to the highest in 2023 in the week to 18 March, as BHP came back from maintenance and Rio Tinto's supplies hit a three-month high owing to drier weather.

Rio Tinto, BHP, Fortescue and Roy Hill loaded vessels with a combined 18.76mn deadweight tonnes (dwt) of capacity in the latest week, up from 15.24mn dwt in the week to 11 March, according to initial shipping data collated by Argus. The dwt is the maximum capacity of a vessel and overestimates actual shipments by around 5pc.

BHP's loadings returned to average after five weeks of below average performance, following a fatal accident in early February, and Rio Tinto was 19pc above its annual rolling weekly average of 6.61mn dwt.

All firms benefited from a dry week in the Pilbara, although Fortescue's shipments were 7pc below its rolling average. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has forecast a largely dry week ahead, with some storms possible towards the end of the week. There are no tropical cyclones within the BoM's zone.

BHP loaded vessels with 5.73mn dwt of capacity in the week to 18 March, up from 4.38mn dwt the previous week. It has warned that January-June shipments could be disrupted by maintenance on its rail and port infrastructure.

Fortescue's loadings rose to 3.52mn dwt, from 3.46mn dwt in the week to 11 March, but were still below its on-year rolling average of 3.78mn dwt/week. Roy Hill's shipments rose to 1.64mn dwt from 1.17mn dwt and were 31pc above its average after a couple of depressed weeks. Rio Tinto loaded vessels with 7.87mn dwt of capacity, up from 6.23mn dwt in the previous week and at the highest level since mid-December.

China was listed as the destination for 80pc of shipments in the latest week, up from 76pc the previous week but still below the average of around 82pc.

The Argus ICX iron ore was last assessed at $126.55/dry metric tonne (dmt) cfr Qingdao on a 62pc Fe basis on 20 March, down from $133.40/dmt on 15 March but up from a recent low of $79/dmt on 31 October 2022.

By Jo Clarke

Iron ore prices $/dmt

WA iron ore loadings mn dmt