WEEKLY: China mills' imported iron ore stocks at 10-m high

The inventories of imported iron ore sintering fines held by the 64 Chinese steelmakers regularly sampled by Mysteel increased for the third straight week by another 282,200 tonnes or 2.3% on week over December 19-25, touching a 10-month high of 12.6 million tonnes, the latest survey results showed.

Behind the continuous rises in ore stocks was primarily mills' slower consumption of their in-plant feedstocks when their restocking of iron ore remained active. Daily consumption of imported iron ore sintering fines at these 64 Chinese steelmakers fell to 564,700 tonnes/day on average over the latest survey period, marking the fourth weekly decline of 15,900