Chinese steel market sources expressed contentment Monday at the country's 85-86 million mt of iron ore inventories at over 20 major Chinese sea ports at present, saying this will likely help steel mills to stabilize imported iron ore prices in the near term.

The latest available figures for China's iron ore port inventories from the China National Development and Reform Commission and Xinhua News Agency were dated back to late December, and they varied little, at 85.4 million mt on December 20 and 85.9 million mt on December 23, respectively.

The two volumes varied 4-5 million mt from the previous month, which was little in the context that the country imported 70 million mt of iron ore monthly on average over January-November of 2013.

Chinese market sources said Monday that the inventories, being sufficient for domestic steel mills for a month of steel output, were at a healthy level, and also lent leverage to the Chinese steel mill in stabilizing imported iron ore prices.

"They [mills] can afford to wait patiently without rushing to return to the import market after the holidays, thus curtailing miners' enthusiasm to raise prices in January," a Beijing-based iron ore trader said.

The abundant readily available iron ore supplies at the Chinese port will also minimize the impact of possible iron ore shipment disruptions from Australia and Brazil usually in the first quarter annually, he added.

NDRC agreed that such a volume of iron ore port inventories were at a healthy level, as it would support Chinese steel mills' 23-28 day consumption, not longer.

China's iron ore port inventories in 2012 used to hover at 95-100 million mt most of the year.