Despite a tropical cyclone, iron ore shipped from Australia’s Port Hedland rose in December as China continued re-stocking.

According to statistics from its website, shipments of iron ore through Port Hedland to China were 24.2 million tonnes in December up from 22.3 million tonnes in November.

A year ago 20.2 million tonnes were exported in December 2012.

China had around 85-86 million tonnes of iron ore inventories at over 20 major Chinese sea ports which could see the steel mills looking to stabilise iron ore price in the near term. At these inventory levels, it is thought that it is sufficient for domestic steel mills for a month of steel output.

Chinese mills may also be looking to minimize the impact of possible iron ore shipment disruptions from Australia and Brazil usually in the first quarter.