Australia and Brazil, the world’s two largest iron ore producers, remained China’s top suppliers in 2020, but imports from India soared 88 per cent as Chinese mills diversified sources amid sky-high raw materials prices.
Australian shipments rose 7 per cent to 713 million tonnes, while Brazilian supplies were up 3.5 per cent at 235.7 million tonnes, data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed on Wednesday.
The world’s top steel producer imported 44.8 million tonnes of iron ore from India last year, compared with the 23.8 million tonnes bought in 2019, and was the most in nine years.
Almost two-thirds of India’s iron ore exports to China had less than 58 per cent iron content, according to Indian mining industry estimates.