WEEKLY: China's iron ore port stocks near 9-mth high

Total iron ore stockpiles across China's major 45 ports under Mysteel's regular tracking climbed by 1.6 million tonnes or 1% on week during November 21-27 to reach 152.1 million tonnes, nearing the highest level over the past nine months, according to the latest survey results. Significantly, the current inventories were 1% higher than the year-ago level, representing the first on-year rise since mid-April.

The increase in port inventories mainly reflected a vast number of ore carriers arriving at China's ports lately. During November 17-23, the volume of iron ore arrivals at the 45 sampled ports jumped by 5.5 million tonnes or 24.2% on week to reach 28.2 million tonnes. More importantly, the arrivals