WEEKLY: China's iron ore port stocks pile to 144.3 million t

A total of 23.5 million tonnes of iron ore arrived at these surveyed ports during March 18-24, with the volume growing for the second week by 726,000 tonnes or 3.2% on week, Mysteel's latest shipment tracking showed.

During March 22-28, the average daily iron ore discharge rate from the same 45 ports totaled 2.9 million tonnes/day, down by 60,200 t/d or 2% on week and making for the second week of fall.

By origin, Australian iron ore stocks at China's 45 ports  retreated from six straight weeks of gains by 994,800 tonnes or 1.6% to 60.3 million tonnes as of March 28, while Brazilian ore of 52.4 million tonnes experienced a weekly increase of 907,300 tonnes or 1.8%.

By product, the stocks of both pellets and concentrates were higher than the prior week's level, with the former up 264,600 tonnes or 3.6% to 7.5 million tonnes, and the latter logged a rise of 372,000 tonnes or 2.9% to reach 13 million tonnes. Lumps, however, reversed a five-week rise by losing 379,100 tonnes or 2% on week to 18.2 million tonnes.

Of all the stocks, those held by Chinese traders ended 13 consecutive weeks of growth, shrinking by 424,400 tonnes from the prior week to sit at 87.4 million tonnes, and the proportion in the total stocks slid too by 0.6 percentage point on week to 60.6%.

Written by Lea Li, liye@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com