BI-WEEKLY: China mines' iron ore stocks finally rise

Total stocks of iron ore concentrates held by the 186 Chinese mining companies under Mysteel's biweekly tracking have finally increased after declining continuously since late April. Specifically, during July 26-August 8 the inventory level increased by 64,500 tonnes or 10.8% on fortnight to reach 662,000 tonnes, ending its months-long slide.

Over the same period, daily production of iron ore concs among these miners fell for the fourth straight period to average 454,500 tonnes/day, though the on-fortnight drop was small at just 3,800 t/d or 0.8%. These miners' capacity utilization also dipped by 0.49 percentage point from the prior period to 58.2%, the survey showed. A shortage of run-of-mine (ROM) iron ore and