Quotable

"Restocking by mills, plus the seasonal factor of northern Chinese mines closing for winter drove the stockpiles lower",

Philip Kirchlechner, director of Iron Ore Research Pty in Perth, Australia. Iron ore inventories at ports in China, the largest importer of the steel-making raw material, fell to their lowest level in almost 11 months on Jan 6, as mills replenished holdings after prices fell and local output slowed during the winter.

"We continue to believe there is insufficient demand in the overall economy and more easing measures are warranted in the coming months."

Qu Hongbin, HSBC's chief economist in China and co-head of its Asian Economic Research. Steady growth in China's service industry looks to have helped counter the weakening in manufacturing activity during 2014, increasing policy makers' confidence to accelerate structural reforms this year, analysts said.

"Chinese end-user demand will remain pretty soft."

Ivan Szpakowski, an analyst at Citigroup in Hong Kong. China's economy is likely to have expanded in 2014 at the slowest pace since 1990 as growth was constrained by a housing slump and factory-gate deflation.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/09/2015 page18)