Port Hedland Recorded Notable Surge in Ore Exports

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The iron ore exports from Port Hedland, Australia saw marginal increase during the initial month of the current year. The data released by the Pilbara Ports Authority (PPA) suggests 2% jump in port export volumes in January this year upon comparison with the same month a year before.

As per PPA data, the iron ore shipments from Port Hedland totaled 41.060 million tonnes in January 2018. This is higher by 1.9% when matched with the shipments during January last year. The shipments had totaled 40.297 million tons in January 2017.

The largest destination of export was China. The port shipments to China totaled 34.655 million tonnes, accounting for more than 84% of the total shipments out of the port. This is the lowest shipment since July 2017. The shipments to China recorded marginal increase of 0.5% when matched with the prior year. The January 2017 shipments to China had totaled 34.489 million tonnes. When matched with the month before, the Jan ’18 Chinese imports were down significantly by over 11%.

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In second place was South Korea with 2.817 million tonnes. The exports to that country declined sharply by nearly 11% from 3.159 million tonnes in January last year. The exports to Japan totaled 1.579 million tonnes, rising sharply from 868,000 tonnes over the previous year. The other key importers of iron ore shipped from the Western Australian port were Singapore (390,000 tonnes), Indonesia (385,000 tonnes) and India (260,000 tonnes). The local shipments totaled 272,000 tonnes during the month. Also, exports to European region resumed during the month. 

The Port Hedland, the world’s biggest iron ore export terminal, had shipped 497.071 million tonnes of iron ore during the entire year 2017, marginally higher from the exports of 478.918 million tonnes in 2016. The key export destinations during the year were China (419.539 million tonnes), South Korea (38.233 million tonnes), Japan (22.297 million tonnes) and Taiwan (6.853 million tonnes).