Iron ore deliveries to steelmakers in Tianjin have resumed after one of the main roads connected to iron ore loading areas of the port operations was reopened Friday night, industry sources said Monday.
The Nanjiang and Beijiang port areas are the two main iron ore facilities in the northern Chinese port of Tianjin, from where material is loaded onto trucks for deliveries to steel mills around that area.
There were two blasts at the main explosion site late Wednesday night, a container stockyard for chemical or hazardous goods.
Following the two major explosions, there were also a series of smaller blasts around the site.
Both port areas halted delivery operations on Wednesday night following a massive explosion.
The blasts have claimed more than 100 lives and have left several hundred people injured.
A Tianjin-based state-owned steelmaker source said that the road leading to Nanjiang port areas was reopened on Friday night while the Beijiang area still remained closed.
“I usually transport my iron ore materials from Nanjiang port anyway, so there is now no need for me to buy iron ore from the nearby ports of Jingtang and Caofeidian in Tangshan city,” said the Tianjin mill source who had told Platts earlier that he may consider buying iron ore from other nearby ports if the road closure continues, even though the transport costs will be higher.
The same Tianjin mill source also added that he heard iron ore delivery to other mills within the region has mostly resumed as most steelmakers in the Tianjin region largely depended on Nanjiang for supply.
“Nanjiang is the bigger port for iron ore, so everything still all right even if the Beijing area still remained closed for transportation,” said the mill source.
Australian mining giant BHP Billiton earlier said its iron ore berths at the port of Tianjin returned to normal operations Friday after the explosions elsewhere in the port late Wednesday.
Tianjin itself is one of the main iron ore ports in China — the world’s largest importer of the steelmaking raw material.