On January 13, the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) announced that in December last year China's Ministry of Commerce issued iron ore import licenses for a total of 60.782 million mt, down 35.59 percent month on month, valued at $7.714 billion. In the whole of 2013, iron ore import licenses were issued for a total of 1.09297 billion mt, valued at $137.149 billion.
In December last year, the iron ore import licenses issued by China for Australian and Brazilian iron ore amounted to 31.2413 million mt and 11.5603 million mt respectively, down 34.63 percent and 43.49 percent month on month. Licenses issued for imports of South African iron ore in the given month amounted to 3.2582 million mt, down 10.95 percent while licenses issued for other countries iron ore amounted to 14.722 million mt, valued at $1.601 billion.