SHANGHAI, Jul 9 (SMM) – Iron ore shipments from Australia sharply shrank last week, dropping 3.89 million mt from the prior week to 12.04 million mt, which is expected to keep supplies of such materials at Chinese ports tight.

SMM data also showed a decrease of 1.26 million mt in iron ore deliveries leaving Brazilian ports in the week ended July 6, to 6.07 million mt.

For the same week, SMM estimates that 89 vessels carrying 13.84 million mt of seaborne iron ore arrived at major Chinese ports, up 1.52 million mt from the week ended June 29.