beijing dec 7 reuters  chinas iron ore imports rose 146 in november from a month earlier to hit their highest since july 2020 customs data showed on tuesday although a sluggish steel market damped demand for the raw material the worlds biggest consumer of iron ore brought in 10496 million tonnes last month up from octobers imports of 9161 million and were also up 69 from nov 2020 data from the general administration of customs showed the jump in imports dominated by products from australia and brazil outstripped market expectations amid cooling iron ore prices and slack demand for steel november imports data could be affected by the customs clearance factor said tang binghua an analyst with founder cifco futures in beijing adding that shipments and arrivals of iron ore did not change significantly in recent months but it is unlikely that high levels of imports will continue said tang as consumption is weak after china stepped up output controls on mills during the heating season and ahead of the winter olympics stocks of imported iron ore at chinese ports grew for 10 straight weeks jumping last week to 1555 million tonnes the highest since mid2018 data from consultancy mysteel showed in the first 11 months of the year china imported 104 billion tonnes of iron ore down 32 from the corresponding period a year earlier according to customs tuesdays data also showed november exports of chinas steel products at 436 million tonnes down 31 on a monthly basis last month steel imports rose to 142 million tonnes an increase of 257 on the month customs said chinas exports and imports of steel products over the period from january to november were 6188 million tonnes and 1327 million respectively reporting by min zhang and shivani singh editing by clarence fernandez