Indonesia Publishes Half-Yearly Iron Ore Trade Statistics

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Statistics Indonesia has published the iron ore trade statistics for the month of June this year and for the first half of the current year. The ore imports registered 29% decline during the month of June. However, cumulative imports during the initial six-month period of the year were still higher by 17% over the previous year.

The Indonesian iron ore imports totaled 404,643 tons in June 2017, 28.6% lower when matched with the imports of 566,648 tons during the same month a year before.

Out of this, imports of non-agglomerated ore by Indonesia totaled 404,618 tons, thereby accounting for bulk of the imports. Chile was the leading exporter of non-agglomerated iron ore to the country. The imports from Chile totaled 195,863 tons, valued at $20.35 million. The imports averaged at $103.9 per ton during the month. The other key suppliers were Australia (172,061 tons), Canada (36,592 tons) and Sweden (102 tons).

The only exporter of agglomerated ore to Indonesia in June this year was China. The imports from China totaled just 25 tons during the month.

According to trade statistics, the combined iron ore imports by Indonesia during the first half-yearly period of 2017 totaled 2.997 million tons, significantly higher by almost 17% when matched with the imports of 2.564 million tons recorded during the corresponding period in 2016.

The non-agglomerated ore imports during Jan-June’17 totaled 2.834 million tons. The output surged higher by 10.6% when matched with the imports of 2.564 million tons during the corresponding period last year. Australia was the key exporter, shipping 1.898 million tons of non-agglomerated ore to Indonesia. The other primary suppliers were Brazil (549,214 tons), Chile (195,863 tons) and Canada (184,513 tons).

The cumulative agglomerated ore imports jumped multi-folds from 211 tons in H1 2016 to 163,268 tons in the first six months of 2017. China supplied 163,268 tons, followed by Singapore with 275 tons.

Meantime, the country’s exports of iron ore has tumbled by over 83% to total 73,500 tons during the month, when matched with the exports of 441,570 tons in June 2016. The only export destination of Indonesian ore was China. The country exported only non-agglomerated iron ore during the month.

The ore exports during the first half-yearly period dropped sharply by 46% year-on-year to total 1.080 million tons in 2017. It must be noted that Indonesian exports had totaled 1.980 million tons in Jan-Jun ’16. Indonesia exported only non-agglomerated ore during this period. Also, China imported whole of Indonesia’s non-agglomerated ore exports.