As of October 27, inventory of iron ore at 33 major Chinese ports amounted to 101.97 million mt, down 1.71 million mt or 1.7 percent compared to the inventory level recorded on October 20, as announced by China's Xinhua News Agency.
As of the same date, the Xinhua-China Iron Ore Price Index for imported iron ore with 62 percent iron content was at 80 points, remaining stable week on week. Meanwhile, the Xinhua-China Iron Ore Price Index for imported iron ore with 58 percent iron content was at 71 points on the date in question, up one point week on week.
At the beginning of the given week, iron ore futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange indicated a sharp rise, pushing up imported iron ore prices in the spot market. However, due to a lack of support from demand, the uptrend quickly came to a halt. Since Wednesday of the given week, traders have mostly been maintaining a wait-and-see stance, with slack transaction activity dragging down imported iron ore prices again. Currently, domestic steelmakers' capacity utilization rates are at normal levels, while their inventories of raw materials are plentiful. The downtrend in finished steel prices has exerted a negative impact on iron ore prices. It is expected that prices of imported iron ore in the Chinese market will move on a downtrend in the coming week.