SHANGHAI, Sep 8 (SMM) – A total of 93 vessels carrying 14.1 million mt of iron ore arrived at major Chinese ports during August 30-September 5, SMM estimates. This was up 520,000 mt from the prior week and 3.25 million mt from the same period last year.

The amount of arrivals in China’s top steelmaking city of Tangshan and Tianjin increased sharply, while that in Shandong fell by more than 1.2 million mt on the week.  

For the same week, iron ore deliveries leaving Australian ports declined 1.53 million mt from the prior week to 14.45 million mt due to maintenance of berths at Walcott port and Hedland port.

Shipments that departed Brazilian ports fell 670,000 mt from the prior week to 7.6 million mt. This was 460,000 mt higher than the same period last year.

Tight supply of Australian iron ore is unlikely to ease significantly in the short term, given the shrinking shipments from Australia.