Seaborne iron ore prices pulled up slightly on Thursday with a little platform trade. Imports volumes for January meanwhile recovered from December but remained down sharply year-on-year.

The Kallanish KORE 62% Fe index gained $0.61/tonne to $87.11/dry metric ton cfr Qingdao. On COREX, 170,000 tonnes of PB fines sold at $86.30/t with a laycan in 5-14 March. On the Dalian Commodity Exchange May iron ore settled down CNY 2.5/t at CNY 621.5/t ($91.95/t), while on the Singapore Exchange March 62% Fe futures settled up $1.01/t at $84.88/t. In Tangshan, billet prices gained CNY 10/t to CNY 3,440/t.

Iron ore imports meanwhile recovered 5.3% month-on-moth to 91.26 million tonnes, customs figures show. The increase came as mills and traders booked cargos to arrive for restocking ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. January imports were still -9.1% down from a year earlier however.

Iron ore imports were at the highest level since September as mills restocked ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays. Mills had an added incentive in that steelmaking margins were strong and they had the cash to lock in iron ore prices before they increased later in the quarter. The decision has already paid off, with very few mills paying the recent higher iron ore prices for spot cargos.