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.
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 from Reuters 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.