In the January-March period this year, China imported 294.335 million mt of iron ore, up 9.8 percent year on year, as announced by the Chinese customs authorities.
In March alone, China imported 100.229 million mt of iron ore, up 10.6 percent month on month, while rising by 14.8 percent year on year.
Finished steel prices were indicating an increasing trend until mid-March amid improved demand from downstream users, but followed a declining trend until late March amid decreasing iron ore prices and demand not being as good as market players had expected. Meanwhile, steel prices bottomed up from March 25 to March 31 with steel futures prices indicating a rebounding trend during that period. However, steel prices moved down further when entering April against the backdrop of steelmakers’ increasing capacity utilization rates and demand not being as good as expected from downstream users.