On May 18, inventory of iron ore at 33 major Chinese ports amounted to 95.40 million mt, up 0.83 million mt, or up 0.88 percent compared to May 11, as announced by China's Xinhua News Agency.
During the May 12-18 period, import iron ore prices in China moved up significantly, rising by 6.6 percent, according to SteelOrbis’ data. Chinese steelmakers’ blast furnace capacity utilization rates and their steel outputs continued to increase, which exerted a positive impact on demand for import iron ore. Moreover, there are worries of possible iron ore supply disruptions from Brazil due to the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the country. Iron ore arriving at Chinese ports has increased and will likely continue to increase in the short term. However, since inventory of iron ore is at relatively low levels, the increase in arrival of supplies cannot affect prices.