On March 21, inventory of iron ore at 33 major Chinese ports amounted to 144.2 million mt, down 1.51 percent compared to March 14, as announced by China's Xinhua News Agency.
During the given week, import iron ore prices moved up amid the decreasing iron ore volumes arriving at Chinese ports and declining deliveries of iron ore to end-users.
Steelmakers’ capacity utilization rates and outputs have risen in northern China, exerting a positive impact on the demand for import iron ore. However, the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic in many regions of China may result in more lockdowns in various cities, which may negatively affect the production activities of steelmakers and weaken the demand for iron ore. It is thought that import iron ore prices may move down in the coming week.