South Africa – world’s 3rd largest iron ore exporter after Australia and Brazil, exported 66.47 MnT iron ore, up 3% against CY’16, which was recorded at 64.77 MnT then. Increased iron ore exports could be attributed to increased iron ore production by South Africa’s major – Anglo American, which reported Kumba iron ore production for the year CY’17 increased by 8% to 45 MnT owing to improved productivity as against 41.5 MnT in CY’16.
South Africa exported 5.91 MnT in Dec’17, according to the trade data released by South African Customs. Iron ore exports have witnessed slight increase in Dec’17 against 5.83 MnT in Nov’17. However, it was down by 8% on yearly basis compared to Dec’16 which was 6.41 MnT.
China’s iron ore imports from South Africa up 5% in 2017 :
In CY’17, China imported 42.33 MnT iron ore from South Africa (with 65% share)against 40.2 MnT in CY’16, followed by South Korea at 4.67 MnT, India at 3.52 MnT, Netherland at 3.51 MnT and Japan at 3.16 MnT.
In Dec’17, an agglomerated (pellets/concentrate) iron ore exports were up 15% M-o-M to 4.01 MnT, against 3.48 MnT in Nov’17. The Y-o-Y iron ore exports witnessed a decline of 11% in Dec’17 as against Dec’16 which stood at 4.49 MnT.
However, the non-agglomerated (fines/lump) iron ore exports were down 19% M-o-M to 1.9 MnT in Dec’17 against 2.36 MnT in Nov’17. Exports witnessed a marginal decline Y-o-Y in Dec’17 as compared to Dec’16 which stood at 1.92 MnT.
Country- wise South Africa Iron Ore Exports :
China continues to remain the largest iron ore importer from South Africa in the month of Dec’17 and imported 3.83 MnT iron ore in Dec’17 (down 11% M-o-M), followed by South Korea at 0.62 MnT (up more than twice M-o-M), Netherland at 0.53 MnT (up almost 13 times M-o-M) and India at 0.38 MnT (down 19% M-o-M).
India imported 0.38 MnT iron ore from South Africa in Dec’17 compared to 0.47 MnT in Nov’17.
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