Iron ore arrivals at Chinese ports to increase further

SHANGHAI, Aug 20 (SMM) – Some 68 vessels with 10.05 million mt of iron ore are expected to arrive at major Chinese ports during August 17-23, up 880,000 mt from 9.17 million mt during August 10-16, SMM data showed.

For the same period, volumes of iron ore departing Australian ports are likely to decrease 700,000 mt to 15.34 million mt while those leaving Brazilian ports are likely to rise by 240,000 mt to 8.1 million mt.

Iron ore seaborne arrivals at ports in Shandong province are estimated to inch up this week while those arriving at ports in Tangshan area would hold steady.

We expect prices of high-grade iron ore to remain strong as port stocks of such materials in Tangshan continued to decrease.