Germany Iron Ore imports down 28% in October

By Carolina Curiel (ScrapMonster Author)

February 17, 2016 06:20:06 AM

BERLIN (Scrap Monster): According to the latest import statistics published by EUROSTAT, the iron ore imports by Germany dropped by nearly 28% during the month of October ’15. This is in comparison with the imports during same month the previous year.

The iron ore imports by the country during October ’15 totaled 3.040 million tonnes, down 27.6% when compared with the imports during same month a year before. The iron ore imports had totaled 4.202 million tonnes during October 2014. Meantime, the average import prices dropped sharply from $92.8 per tonne in Oct ’14 to $64.3 per tonne in October last year. The total value of imports amounted to $195.632 million during Oct ‘15, significantly lower by 49.8% when compared with the import value of $389.970 million during the previous year.

The largest iron ore exporter to Germany during October last year was the Netherlands. Germany’s iron ore imports from the country totaled 1.815 million tonnes, accounting for almost 60% of the total imports by Germany during the month. The iron ore imports from Netherlands averaged at $62.50 per tonne during the month.

The second largest exporter to Germany during Oct ‘15 was Sweden with 329,245 tonnes. In third place was Canada with exports to Germany totaling 343,639 tonnes during the month. The other key exporters of iron ore to Germany were Brazil (329,245 tonnes), Ukraine (101,747 tonnes) and Mauritiana (66,456 tonnes).

The cumulative iron ore imports by Germany during Jan-Oct ’15 declined marginally by 0.7% to total 35.166 million tonnes. The average import price has dropped by 41.6% during this period to $67.8 per tonne from $116.1 per tonne during Jan-Oct ’14. The largest exporter of iron ore to Germany during the ten-month period in 2015 was the Netherlands with 18.481 million tonnes, followed by Brazil (7.035 million tonnes) and Sweden (4.377 million tonnes).