On February 16, the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) announced that in January this year China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) issued iron ore import licenses for a total of 123.83 million mt, down 10.4 percent year on year, while up 91.19 percent month on month, valued at $8.83 billion.
In January this year, the iron ore import licenses issued by China for Australian and Brazilian iron ore amounted to 76.0721 million mt and 23.9600 million mt respectively, up 83.83 percent and 155.63 percent month on month, with respective values of $5.341 billion and $1.787 billion.
Licenses issued for imports of South African iron ore in January amounted to 5.0950 million mt, up 73.69 percent month on month, valued at $401 million, while licenses issued for iron ore from other countries amounted to 5.3047 million mt, valued at $331 million.