Port Inventory of Iron Ore Across 35 Ports Drop on the Week, and to Fall Further next Week

SHANGHAI, Mar 3 (SMM)－SMM statistics showed that the iron ore inventories across the 35 ports in China totalled 136.26 million mt as of March 3, down 1.85 million mt WoW and 13.81 million mt YoY. The shipments of iron ore from the ports have risen for five consecutive weeks. Last week, the weekly average shipments from the ports added 16,000 mt WoW to 3.09 million mt. On the fundamentals, arrivals at ports declined last week, while the iron ore demand from steel mills grew. The market sentiment was relatively optimistic, and trading continued to pick up. In mid-week, steel mills increased their restocking as the iron ore prices fell, thus shipments from the ports rose. Port inventory across 35 ports will drop this week since the iron ore shipments will not increase steadily, and the pig iron output is expected to grow with the improvement of terminal demand.