China iron ore port stocks continued to fall on limited arrivals

SHANGHAI, Nov 8 (SMM) – Inventories of iron ore across Chinese ports declined by a smaller margin this week, as arrivals remained limited while demand weakened.

SMM data showed that iron ore stocks across 35 Chinese ports decreased by 350,000 mt from a week ago to 116.45 million mt as of November 8, after a drop of 2 million mt in the prior week. This was 14.38 million mt lower than a year ago.

Demand weakened this week, with the daily average iron ore deliveries from those ports falling 117,000 from the prior week to 2.75 million mt in the week ended November 8.

Steelmakers turned cautious about feedstock procurement as they looked ahead to local governments’ decisions on winter production curbs this year as the smog season approaches.

Maintenance at some steel mills also dented demand this week.