WEEKLY: China mills' imported iron ore stocks increase along with lower usage

While Chinese steelmakers' consumption of imported iron ore dropped sharply amid recent production cuts, their inventories of the feed ore have accumulated, as active replenishment more than offset the drawdowns from production, Mysteel's latest survey showed.

As of July 15, total inventories of imported iron ore sintering fines held by the 64 Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steel mills under Mysteel's tracking rose by 189,000 tonnes or 1.5% on week to 13.2 million tonnes, ending a three-week decline. The increase in stocks mainly reflected domestic steel mills' stronger