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Iron ore imports surge in first quarter

(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-04-13 14:14

According to the latest statistics from the General Administration of Customs, the first quarter of 2010 witnessed an unprecedented prosperous spot market with record high iron ore imports of 155 million tons, up 18 percent from the same period of last year,, the Shanghai Securities News reported Tuesday.

The total amount of iron ore imports in the first quarter also rewrote record to $14.93 billion, up 42.4 percent year-on-year.

Based on the Customs statistics, iron ore prices averaged $96.3 per ton in the first quarter, up 20.7 percent from the previous year. The spot price, however, has long surpassed this figure, increasing $2 to $3 per week in recent weeks.

"Reselling iron ore is so lucrative," said the report, citing a principal at an iron ore trading department of a State-owned steel maker. He noted that a large amount of money is swarming into the ore spot market, and that ore prices were pushed to skyrocket by the reselling of numerous small and medium-sized traders.

However, traders have a different story. A manager of a trading company based in Guangzhou said steel makers were also involved in the reselling of iron ore. "Those steel giants have established iron ore trading companies in Hong Kong to import iron ore, thus gaining profits from reselling," he said.