WEEKLY: China mills' imported iron ore stocks fall again

Inventories of imported iron ore sintering fines held by the 64 Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers under Mysteel's weekly survey dropped by 274,900 tonnes or 2.1% on week to 12.7 million tonnes by November 12, following an on-week increase of 572,100 tonnes a week ago.

Meanwhile, consumption of the raw material among the 64 surveyed mills also slipped – they consumed 575,900 tonnes/day of imported iron ore sintering fines on average during November 6-12, down by 6,600 t/d or 1.1% on week. The lower sintering fines consumption – subsequently lower output of sintered ore –