As steel mills primarily made purchases as needed, iron ore inventories at 35 ports continued to accumulate

As of June 7, the iron ore inventory at the 35 ports tracked by SMM totalled 145.45 million mt, up 900,000 mt WoW and 22.87 million mt YoY. The daily iron ore pick-up volume from ports averaged 3.028 million mt, down 10,000 mt WoW and 98,000 mt YoY.

According to SMM, port arrivals remained at a high level this week. As the profits were still under pressure, steel mills kept inventories at low levels and primarily restocked as needed, leading to a slight decline in iron ore pick-up volume from ports. Overall, iron ore inventories at the ports continued to accumulate.

Looking ahead to next week, given previous large shipments, port arrivals are expected to stay high. Demand side, SMM expects pig iron output to decline next week, which may weaken the demand for iron ore concentrates, leading to a further decrease in pick-up volume from ports and a continued accumulation of port inventories next week.