According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in December last year China’s iron ore production amounted to 77.021 million mt, increasing by 2.0 percent year on year, shifting from a year-on-year decrease of 3.6 percent recorded in November last year.
In December, import iron ore prices moved on an overall rising trend first and rose to their highest level of $175/mt CFR for the month on December 21 amid rising iron ore futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) and the rises in steel prices. Subsequently, iron ore prices moved on a downward trend in late December due to the declining trend of iron ore futures prices and lower demand.
In 2020 overall, China produced 866.717 million mt of iron ore, up by 3.7 percent year on year, 1.6 percentage points faster than the increase recorded in the first 11 months of the year.
As previously reported by SteelOrbis, in 2020 China’s iron ore imports increased by 9.5 percent year on year to 1.1701 billion mt, with the year-on-year rise 1.4 percentage points slower than that recorded in the first 11 months of the year.