SHANGHAI, May 9 (SMM) – Inventories of seaborne iron ore at Chinese ports continued to trend lower this week, due to stable demand.

SMM data showed that iron ore stocks across 35 Chinese ports decreased 2.29 million mt from Thursday April 30 to 102.96 million mt as of Friday May 8, some 21.53 million mt lower than a year ago.

Daily average iron ore deliveries from the 35 ports edged down 18,000 mt from the week before the Labour Day holidays to 2.88 million mt this week, as steel mills restocked as needed.

Iron ore inventories across Chinese ports are expected to decline at a slower pace as Australian and Brazilian shipments to China have increased while demand is unlikely to improve significantly.