WEEKLY: China mills' imported iron ore stocks keep mounting

Inventories of imported iron ore sintering fines held by the 64 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular monitoring had risen for the third straight week during March 13-19 to reach 13 million tonnes, up by 352,300 tonnes or 2.8% on week, Mysteel's latest survey results showed.

The continuous increase reflected the active replenishment of iron ore among Chinese mills as their higher hot metal production entailed larger consumption of the steelmaking material, Mysteel Global noted. For example, Mysteel's nationwide monitoring of the 247 steelmakers showed that they produced 2.31 million tonnes/days of hot metal on average