China iron ore imports surged 16.8% in June

SHANGHAI, Jul 14 (SMM) – China’s imports of iron ore and concentrates rose 16.8% to 101.68 million mt in June from a month earlier, according to data from the country’s General Administration of Customs released on Tuesday.

That brought the tally for the first six months of 2020 to 546.91 million mt, up 9.6% from the same period last year.

June’s imports was 35.3% higher from the same month of 2019 and marked the highest since October 2017.

In June, China’s imports of steel products also expanded, increasing 4.7% from May to 1.88 million mt, almost double the same month a year ago, according to China customs data compiled and calculated by SMM.

China’s steel products imports totalled 7.34 million mt for the January-to-June period, creating a year-over-year increase of 26.1%.

Customs data also showed that China exported 3.7 million mt of steel products last month, down 15.9% month on month and 30.3% year on year.

For the first six months of 2020, China’s exports of steel products came in at 28.7 million mt, down 16.5% from the same period a year earlier.