China, the world’s largest iron ore consumer and importer, recorded imports of iron ore (including pellets) at 1,124 million tonnes (mnt) (1.12 bnt) in the calendar year 2022 (CY’22), according to the General Administration of Customs. Imports decreased by 1.5% y-o-y compared to the previous calendar year.
The slight drop in imports was on account of China’s crude steel production curbs. The country ended 2022 with a 2.34% drop in crude steel production to 1.006 bnt against 1.031 bnt in 2021. This was mainly due to lower demand on account of poor performance of the real estate sector and the unprecedented Covid surge which led to severe lockdowns.
Secondly, higher run of mine (ROM) iron ore production in China also played a part in lowering imports y-o-y. China’s domestic iron ore production was up 4% to over 1 bnt last year from 959 mnt in 2021 despite the drop in consumption.
However, China’s iron ore imports in December 2022 were recorded at 90.86 mnt, up 5.6% y-o-y against 86.07 mnt in December 2021.
Data shows that China imported the highest volume of iron ore from Australia in January-November 2022 at 668 mnt, followed by Brazil at 208 mnt. These two countries are the largest and second-largest exporters of iron ore respectively.
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