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Orbital Insight Reveals a 38% Drop in BHP Iron Ore Shipped from Port Hedland

Analysts knew that the BHP derailment in Western Australia would cause a short-term supply glut in iron ore. What analysts and BHP’s customers still want to know is: How much iron ore won’t make it to market?

To answer this, Orbital Insight used AIS vessel traffic data to identify bulk carriers at BHP’s berths in Port Hedland, to analyze just how much material BHP shipped out to customers in China and Japan every week.

(Above: BHP owned berths were identified and geofenced by Orbital Insight to monitor for AIS vessel tracking signals)

Orbital has been tracking bulk carriers at the BHP berths to understand historical trends at the port, and found >0.9 correlations with BHP’s quarterly iron ore production. Following the November 5th derailment, shipped tonnage out of BHP’s Port Hedland berths for the week ended 14th November saw a 38% decline from the prior week.

(Above: BHP shipping tonnage drops 38% week over week following the Nov 5 derailment)

While BHP was still able to ship its existing stock from the port, the supply line is still recovering and Orbital Insight will continue to persistently monitor the port’s activity.

This data was sourced directly from Orbital Insight’s geospatial analytics platform, delivering transparency into the global economy, commodities and supply chains. Learn more about how Orbital Insight can help organizations answer global economic, social and environmental questions through multi-source intelligence.