On April 23, the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) announced that in March this year China's Ministry of Commerce issued iron ore import licenses for a total of 104.810 million mt, up 43.58 percent month on month, valued at $12.145 billion. During the first quarter of this year, iron ore import licenses were issued for a total of 317.904 million mt, valued at $38.71 billion.
In March 2014, the iron ore import licenses issued by China for Australian and Brazilian iron ore amounted to 57.196 million mt and 19.47 million mt respectively, up 42.7 percent and 45.25 percent month on month. Licenses issued for imports of South African iron ore in the given month amounted to 4.513 million mt, up 7.1 percent month on month while licenses issued for other countries iron ore amounted to 23.631 million mt, valued at $2.479 billion.