In January of the current year, iron ore shipments from Australia's Port Hedland decreased by 15 percent compared to December last year and were up 27 percent year on year, totaling 22 million metric tons.
The Port Hedland Port Authority also announced that it has started the year with a new tonnage record for the largest departure of iron ore on a single tide. The new record of 1,059,740 mt was set on Tuesday, January 15 and beat the previous record set in June 2012 by more than 19,000 mt.
According to the information released by the Port Authority, iron ore shipments made from Port Hedland to China amounted to 18.3 million metric tons in January, decreasing by 9.15 percent compared to December and up 31.2 percent compared to the same month of the previous year.
Port Hedland handles production from mines owned by BHP Billiton, Atlas Iron and Fortescue Metals Group in the iron ore-rich Pilbara region of Western Australia.