Reuters reported that iron ore imports by top consumer China rose 14.4% in March from the previous month but shipment levels were still at their second lowest in five months amid a sluggish recovery in the country's appetite for steel.

According to data issued by the General Administration of Customs,compared to a year ago, March imports were up 2.7%. Total imports in the Q1 were flat from a year ago at 186.5 million tonnes.

The increase in March arrivals comes as February's imports dropped to a four month low of 56.4 million tonnes as the week long Lunar New Year holiday slowed shipments and high prices also curbed appetite. But with March being a longer month, analysts said the average daily increase for iron ore shipments worked out to be a mere 3%.

Mr Helen Lau senior commodities analyst at UOB Kay Hian said that "This shows that steel mills are not significantly restocking and are just purchasing what they need despite inventory at ports having fallen to about 68 million tonnes from a high of around 97 million tonnes last year. Mills have been quite cautious in importing iron ore because steel demand didn't recover as expected in the first quarter and steel product inventories are still high at around 21 million tonnes."