Iron ore inventories at the 33 major Chinese seaports monitored fell 1.56 percent week on week to 78.83 million metric tons (tonnes) as of June 22, according to the Xinhua-China Iron Ore Price Index (Xinhua-China IOP Index) released on Tuesday.
The index, compiled through research and analysis of 33 selected major seaports, shows that the price index for iron ore imports of 62 percent purity grade declined 4 points from a week before to 61 by June 22; and the index for iron ore imports of 58 percent purity grade dropped 4 points to 55.
Prices of iron ore imports showed a downtrend in June 16-22 with a thin trading volume.
The sharp fall in domestic steel prices weighed on the imported iron ores. In addition, the continuous decline in iron ore futures also gave a blow to the prices of imported iron ore in the period.
As buyers generally were bearish about the iron ore market, pries of iron ore imports will likely perform weakly in the future, said analysts.
Developed by Xinhua News Agency, the Xinhua-China Iron Ore Price Index (Xinhua-China IOP Index) is released every Tuesday on the Xinhua08 platform. The index closely tracks changes of the country's iron ore market on the basis of in-depth surveys of China's major sea ports, iron ore traders, and steel makers, as well as analysis of Customs statistics, and serves as a reference indicator that is able to reflect changes in iron ore stocks in China. The original data was collected via the global data and information collection network of Xinhua and put together with comments from industry experts in the iron and steel production, wholesale, and retail sectors.
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