SHANGHAI, Mar 20 (SMM) – Inventories of seaborne iron ore at Chinese ports fell for a seventh straight week this week, pulled by recovering demand and a decline in arrivals.

With major iron ore producers including South Africa, Malaysia and India entering nationwide lockdowns to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese ports are unlikely to see their iron ore stocks growing fast in the short term, even as shipments from Australia and Brazil have increased.

SMM data showed that iron ore stocks across 35 Chinese ports totalled 107.77 million mt as of March 27, down 1.57 million mt from a week ago and 27.98 million mt lower than a year ago.

Daily iron ore average deliveries from the 35 ports increased 18,000 mt from the prior week to 2.76 million mt this week.

There were about 11.75 million mt of iron ore estimated to have arrived at major Chinese ports during March 15-21, down 260,000 mt from the week ended March 14.