Chinese Iron Ore, Coal and Soyabean Imports in August

Coal, Grain, Iron Ore

Chinese iron ore imports declined from July’s record high of 112.6 Mt to 100.4 Mt in August, customs data show. Nonetheless, with imports still growing by 5.5 Mt year-on-year, this continued a trend of annual rises in each month since April, bringing receipts in the first eight months of 2020 up 73.8 Mt year-on-year to 760.2 Mt.

The country’s total coal imports dropped to a year-to-date low of 20.7 Mt last month (-12.3 Mt on the year) however, receipts in January-August were still up slightly (+0.6 Mt) to 220.9 Mt.

Meanwhile, soyabean imports also fell from recent months, softening to 9.6 Mt in August. However, annual rises in the four months since May supported year-to-date arrivals, which gained to 64.7 Mt (+8.4 Mt).