Steelmakers in China, the world's biggest iron ore importer, are using more domestic supplies of the raw material after a rally in the price of imports, according to Mysteel.com.

Domestic ore accounted for 84.1 percent of the fines used to process into pellet feed and 28.2 percent of the ore used to produce sinter feed as of Friday, up from 80.1 percent and 26.2 percent respectively reported on Dec 21, the researcher said in a survey report of 60 smaller mills on its website.

Pellet and sinter feed are both used in blast furnaces to make iron in steel production. Iron ore delivered to ports in China surged to $158.50 a dry ton on Jan 8, the highest in almost 15 months.

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