The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) has announced that in December last year China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) issued iron ore import licenses for a total of 77.703 million mt, down 30.95 percent month on month, valued at $5.12 billion. In 2017, the MOC issued iron ore import licenses for a total of 1.4026549 billion mt, valued at $99.237 billion.
In December last year, the iron ore import licenses issued by China for Australian and Brazilian iron ore amounted to 50.5058 million mt and 15.0667 million mt respectively, down 28.13 percent and 37.79 percent month on month, with respective values of $3.171 billion and $1.042 billion. In 2017, the iron ore import licenses issued for Australian and Brazilian iron ore totaled 865.4343 million mt and 295.1711 million mt, valued at $60.047 billion and $22.213 billion, respectively.
Licenses issued for imports of Indian iron ore in December amounted to 1.3961 million mt, down 41.23 percent month on month, valued at $131 million, while licenses issued for iron ore from other countries amounted to 10.7343 million mt, valued at $776 million. In 2017, the import licenses issued for iron ore from India and
other countries amounted to 34.9199 million mt and 207.1297 million mt, valued at $2.567 billion and $14.41 billion, respectively.