WEEKLY: Chinese steel mills' imported iron ore stocks increase

Chinese integrated steelmakers have recently increased imported iron ore purchases to replenish in-plant stocks, driven by their higher consumption of sintering fines during the past week, Mysteel's latest survey showed.

By September 2, total stocks of imported iron ore sintering fines held by the 64 Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steel mills under Mysteel's tracking rose by 271,000 tonnes or 2% on week to 13.71 million tonnes. This uptick ended two consecutive weeks of declines. A Shanghai-based iron ore analyst attributed the