Iron ore shipments to China via Port Hedland top 38 Mt in Aug

After a seasonal retreat in July, iron ore shipments from Port Hedland - Western Australia's largest bulk export terminal to China came in at 38 million tonnes in August, edging up slightly by 0.4% from the prior month, though the tonnage remained 1.8% lower on a yearly basis, according to data released by the Pilbara Ports Authority (PPA).

Production at Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers witnessed slight declines last month, constraining mills' buying appetite for the feed ore to some extent, Mysteel Global noted. The combined hot metal output of the 247 BF steelmakers under Mysteel's tracking registered 73.62 million tonnes in August, slightly down 0.5% on month