China Posts 6% Drop in Half-Yearly Iron Ore Imports

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The China Foreign Trade Statistics published yesterday indicates that iron ore imports by the country dropped significantly during the initial six-month period of the current year. However, the average price of import surged higher significantly, in comparison with the first half of 2018.

China imported 499.094 million tonnes (Mt) of iron ore in Jan-June ’19. This is lower by 5.9% than the total imports of 530.456 Mt in the corresponding six months of 2018. Over the previous year, the import prices zoomed by nearly 23% from $70.45 per tonne to $86.65 per tonne, said trade statistics.

The largest supplier of iron ore to China in H1 2019 was Australia. The imports from Australia totaled 320.383 Mt at an average price of $84.77 per tonne. In second place was Brazil with supplies of 97.251 Mt, followed by South Africa with 21.622 Mt. The other major sources of import were India (9.098 Mt), Peru (7.833 Mt) and Iran (6.550 Mt).