WEEKLY: China mills' import iron ore stocks increase faster

Inventories of imported iron ore sintering fines held by Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers continued rising over the past week at a faster pace, as lower ore prices encouraged steel mills to ramp up their purchases, Mysteel's latest survey showed.

By May 20, total stocks of imported iron ore sintering fines at the 64 Chinese BF steel producers under Mysteel's tracking advanced by 389,800 tonnes or 3.1% on week to 13.14 million tonnes. The latest increase, larger than the on-week rise of 0.5% recorded a week earlier, mainly reflected the