WEEKLY: China mills' imported iron ore usage, stocks both drop

Chinese steelmakers have further reduced their consumption of imported iron ore recently, as deepening profit losses and mandatory output cuts continue to constrain their production activity, according to Mysteel's latest survey.

During July 23-29, the daily usage of imported sintering fines among the 64 Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steel mills under Mysteel's tracking averaged 558,200 tonnes/day, down 37,000 t/d or 6.2% on week. This marks a sharper decline than the 5.1% drop recorded in the previous survey period. The steep fall was