In July this year, manganese ore shipments from Australia's Port Hedland totaled 196,500 metric tons, increasing significantly compared to the low level of 72,500 mt recorded in June, and up 50.2 percent compared to the same month of 2012, according to the monthly data released by the Port Hedland Port Authority.
According to the released information, manganese ore shipments made from Port Hedland to South Korea amounted to 86,000 metric tons in July, while there were no recorded manganese exports to South Korea from the port in June this year, nor in July 2012. Ukraine and İndia followed South Korea in July this year with shipments amounting to 60,500 metric tons and 50,000 metric tons, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Port Hedland Port Authority has reported an overall record tonnage throughput of 288.4 million mt for the financial year 2012-13 (ended June 30), an increase of 17 percent from the previous year.
As reported previously by SteelOrbis, in July this year, iron ore shipments from Port Hedland rose 36.5 percent year on year, totaling 26.6 million mt. The port authority announced that the largest-ever shipment of iron ore left Port Hedland on July 24, with 256,646 mt aboard the Fortescue-loaded vessel. This breaks the previous record for the largest single shipment of iron ore from Port Hedland by 196 mt, which was set on June 9 this year with 256,450 mt.
Port Hedland handles production from mines owned by BHP Billiton, Fortescue Metals Group and Atlas Manganese in the manganese ore-rich Pilbara region of Western Australia.