[Ferro-Alloys.com] China’s April iron ore imports fell 1.4% from a month earlier, official customs data showed on Monday, as overall purchases were impaired by lean demand at mills while the pandemic situation still disrupted shipments.

The world’s top iron ore consumer took in 86.06 million tonnes of the key steelmaking material, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. That compared with 87.28 million tonnes of imports in March and was 12.7% lower than in April 2021.

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In the first four months of 2022, China imported 354.4 million tonnes of iron ore, down 7.1% from the same period a year earlier, according to the customs administration.

The country exported 4.98 million tonnes of steel last month, up from 4.95 million tonnes in March but well below the 7.97 million tonnes of a year earlier, when traders were ramping up shipments ahead of removal of most steel export tax rebates.

Steel imports in April came in at 956,000 tonnes, falling below 1 million tonnes amid surging overseas prices, the customs data showed.

• [Editor:tianyawei]