According to SMM calculations, the capacity utilisation rate of mines in November 2024 was 54.6%, down 1.3 percentage points MoM; the total production of iron ore concentrates in November was 19.698 million mt, down 1.161 million mt MoM. The significant decline in domestic mine capacity utilisation was mainly due to the following reasons:
1) A severe roof fall accident occurred in Linyi, Shandong, resulting in multiple casualties. Affected by this incident, all integrated mining and beneficiation enterprises in the region suspended production for rectification, leading to a sharp decline in capacity utilisation rate.
2) Some mines in Hebei faced issues of mining license expiration and ROM shortages, resulting in reduced ROM supply and dragging down the capacity utilisation performance of the entire region.
3) Additionally, in Inner Mongolia, due to reduced demand from local steel mills and colder weather, some mines entered winter break, leading to a decline in capacity utilisation rate.
In regions such as Anhui and Liaoning, capacity utilisation rates saw a slight increase, mainly because some mines that had lower capacity utilisation rates in October due to maintenance resumed production in November, bringing about an improvement. Furthermore, as year-end approaches, some mines are ramping up production to meet annual production targets. Multiple factors contributed to the slight increase in capacity utilisation rates in these two regions.
However, in the past two months, frequent mine accidents and more frequent year-end mine safety inspections may have impacted production at some mines. Additionally, mines in Xinjiang are expected to enter the winter break period soon, with a significant decline in capacity utilisation rate. Therefore, it is expected that the overall capacity utilisation rate of domestic mines nationwide may see a slight decline in December.
