The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) has announced that in October this year China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) issued iron ore import licenses for a total of 97.4864 million mt, down 23.28 percent month on month, valued at $5.732 billion. In the January-October period of the current year, the MOC issued iron ore import licenses for a total of 1.14699 billion mt, valued at $62.675 billion.
In October this year, the iron ore import licenses issued by China for Australian and Brazilian iron ore amounted to 63.6654 million mt and 17.8843 million mt respectively, down 17.49 percent and 41.33 percent month on month, with respective values of $3.663 billion and $1.106 billion. In the January-October period of the current year, the iron ore import licenses issued for Australian and Brazilian iron ore totaled 714.9872 million mt and 242.1575 million mt, valued at $38.327 billion and $14.246 billion, respectively.
Licenses issued for imports of South African iron ore in October amounted to 4.1707 million mt, down 37.09 percent month on month, valued at $269 million, while licenses issued for iron ore from other countries amounted to 11.766 million mt, valued at $694 million. In the January-October period this year, the import licenses issued for iron ore from South Africa and other countries amounted to 49.7873 million mt and 14.0062 million mt, valued at $2.862 billion and $7.24 billion, respectively.