Malaysia Records 15% Surge in Iron Ore Exports

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The country's iron ore exports surged higher significantly during the initial seven months of 2018, says latest trade data released by the Malaysian Department of Statistics.

Malaysia’s iron ore exports totaled 15.008 million tons during the first seven months of the current year. This is significantly higher by 14.6% when matched with the exports during the corresponding seven-month period in 2017. The country had exported 13.094 million tons of iron ore during Jan-July ‘17. The value of exports totaled $551.7 million, marginally up by 3.4% over the year. Meantime, the average export price has dropped by almost 10% year-on-year from $40.8 per tonne to $36.8 per tonne.

The largest importer of iron ore from Malaysia during Jan-Sep ’18 was China. The imports by China totaled 13.116 million tons, accounting for more than 87% of total exports by Malaysia. The Malaysian ore exports to Vietnam totaled 1.645 million tons. In third place was Indonesia with 247,999 tonnes.

The Malaysian iron ore exports totaled 2.101 million tons during Sep '18, 24.1% higher when matched with the exports of 1.693 million tonnes during the same month a year before. The value of exports totaled $76.422 million, whereas the exports averaged at $36.4 per tonne. The key export destinations were China (1.817 million tonnes) and Vietnam (283,637 tonnes).