According to preliminary Indian customs data, India encountered a substantial increase in iron imports in January and February 2018. Depending on slight variances in data from various iron ore customs reports, the last six months of 2017 averaged near 0.54-.57 million mt of iron ore imports to India per month.
This year, India imported 1.95 million mt of iron ore in January alone while it imported 1.07 million mt in February. Compared to the approximate 0.72 million mt in January and 0.22 million mt in February of last year, this year iron ore imports have increased 140 percent and 486 percent, respectively.