By Min Zhang and Dominique Patton
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s iron ore imports in the first two months of 2022 were almost flat from a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Monday.
The world’s biggest consumer of iron ore brought in 181.1 million tonnes of the steel ingredient in January-February, compared with imports of 181.5 million tonnes in the first two months of 2021.
Customs combines data from January and February due to the Lunar New Year holiday, which fell in early February this year.
Iron ore shipments from China’s two biggest suppliers, Australia and Brazil, reached 151.6 million tonnes in the first two months, shipment data from Refinitiv showed.
The value of iron ore imports over the past two months, however, fell 36.1% year-on-year, according to customs clearance.
“This is as China has tightened price controls since the third quarter of last year, while raw material demand has also slowed,” said Wang Yingwu, an analyst at Huatai Futures in Beijing.
China’s state planner has rolled out a series of measures in recent weeks after iron ore prices surged more than 20% from the end of 2021, urging market participants to avoid speculation and traders to reduce stocks at ports. .
More recently, with the war in Ukraine, the price of ore has soared again.
Wang Yingwu expects reduced port inventories could reduce some iron ore imports in the short term, while March arrivals are also expected to decline based on shipping data.
Iron ore inventories at Chinese ports stood at 158.9 million tonnes on March 4, down for two consecutive weeks, data from consultancy SteelHome showed.
Monday’s data also showed that China’s steel exports fell 18.8% to 8.23m tonnes in the first two months.
Steel imports also dropped 7.9% to 2.21m tonnes in January-February from a year earlier.
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