India Iron ore exports scale new heights on strong China demand

Iron ore exports have reached new highs in the last two months on the back of strong demand from China.

Export shipments of iron ore in September were four million tonnes against 1.14 million tonnes in the same month last year. Over August 2020, the shipments were up 3 per cent.

Odisha miners have been booking orders since the end of July for shipments in September on the back of a spike in prices globally. The monthly average global price of iron ore fines (Fe 62 per cent) exported to China increased to $122 a tonne CFR (cost and freight) in August, as against $107 a tonne in July. Further, the average price increased to $124 a tonne (CNF China) in September.

While earlier, China had cut iron ore imports from India due to the simmering border conflict between both the countries and increased iron ore imports from Australia, in the last two months, the dragon has started buying again from India on a large scale — China accounted for 95 per cent of iron ore exports from India during this period, while shipments to Japan and South Korea stood at 0.07 million tonnes each.he importance of heavy industrial structures, large-span structures,