China reduced iron ore imports by 2.3% y/y in January-September 2022

Steel companies of China in January-September 2022 reduced the import of iron ore by 2.3% compared to the same period in 2021 – to 822.54 million tons. SteelOrbis reports about it with the reference to data from the China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

In September 2022, China imported 99.71 million tons of iron ore, which is 4.3% more than in September 2021. In comparison with the previous month, the import of iron ore to China in September 2022 increased by 3.64%.

In September 2022, iron ore prices initially increased, but from the middle of the month they decreased against the background of fluctuations in iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange. After a long national holiday in China (October 1-7), iron ore prices started to rise again, but later fell due to the weak dynamics of the steel market.

In January-September 2022, China reduced the production of unrefined steel by 3.4% compared to the same period in 2021 – to 780.83 thousand tons. The production of finished steel in China in 9 months reached 1.005 billion tons, decreasing by 2.2% to January-September 2021. The output of pig iron during this period decreased by 2.5%, to 656.1 million tons.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2021, steelmakers of China reduced the import of iron ore by 4.3% compared to 2020 – to 1.12 billion tons. Steel production in the country over the past year decreased by 3% – to 1.03 billion tons. In 2022, China plans to continue reducing production.