Chinese Iron Ore Imports from Australia Rise

Mineweb reported that China’s iron ore imports from Australia rose 31.6 percent last year, hitting 548.4 million tonnes. The rise has been attributed to an increase in production by big miners — that has pushed prices down and eliminated some smaller suppliers.

As quoted in the market news:

China imported a record high 932.5 million tonnes of the steelmaking raw material last year, up 13.8 percent annually, as lower-cost shipments from the mega miners flooded the market and forced some higher-cost mines to shut down.

Based on this, shipments from Australia accounted for 58.8 percent of the total, versus 50.9 percent in 2013. Iron ore imports from Brazil, the second-largest supplier to China, climbed 10.3 percent on year to 170.96 million tonnes last year, data showed.

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