Wedoany.com Report-Mar 7, China's iron ore imports in the first two months of 2025 fell by 8.4% from the same period a year earlier, curbed by weather-related supply disruption in major producer Australia.
A bulldozer and a labor work on a pile of iron ore at a steel factory in Tangshan in China's Hebei Province November 3, 2015.
The world's largest iron ore consumer brought in 191.36 million metric tons of the key steelmaking ingredient during January and February, customs data showed on Friday.
The number works out to a monthly average of 95.68 million tons. That compared to 112.49 million tons in December and a monthly average of 103.2 million tons in 2024.
China combines import data for January and February to smooth out the impact of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, the timing for which changes each year.
The annual fall is largely because of weather-related supply disruption in major supplier Australia, said analyst Shan Peng at trading company China Base Ningbo Group.
"But the total volumes are around 10 million tons higher than our earlier forecast, probably because miners stepped up shipments after the cyclone effect retreated," Shan added.
A survey in February showed that analysts expected to see an annual slump of at least 10% for January and February.
Operations at Western Australia's major iron ore hubs - Port Hedland and the Dampier - had been suspended due to cyclone Zelia, the most severe cyclone since April 2023.
Rio Tinto (RIO.AX), the world's largest iron ore producer, expects a loss of 13 million tons of iron ore from cyclones that have hit Australia's west coast and disrupted iron ore shipments this year.
China's iron ore imports in March will likely top 100 million tons as miners ramped up shipments to achieve quarterly and annual targets after cyclones disrupted shipments in the prior two months, analysts said.
China's steel exports over January-February rose 6.7% from the year earlier to 16.97 million tons, the customs data showed.
Steel imports in the first two months fell 7.2% year-on-year to 1.05 million tons.
