Demand also remains strong in Europe, with end user first-quarter tenders for over 3,000t and suppliers struggling to respond.

US hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices dropped this week on lower sales and offers, amid continued limited spot market activity.

"We will be carrying out planned maintenance in some of our mills during this period, although there will be no impact on customers," a company spokesperson said.

Australian iron ore mining firms Fenix and Fe Limited are using hedging to keep operating, with most of their unhedged rivals having stopped production or development with the reality of a more than halving of the iron ore price over the past four months.

JSW's average capacity utilisation rose to 95pc during October compared with 89pc a year earlier and the highest since March this year when it was 96pc.

WA miner to test vanadium redox flow battery technology

Ferro-Alloy Resources reports first commercial sale of ferro-molybdenum, completes testing ferro-vanadium production

FAR starts producing ferro-molybdenum and vanadium pentoxide