South Africa's iron ore exports to China surge 47% YoY in Jan

Among the total, 53% or 2.89 million tonnes were shipped to China, the country's largest buyer of the steelmaking material. Significantly, the tonnage marked a substantial increase of 46.5% on year, though it was lower by 18.7% from December.

The second largest destination of South Africa's iron ore exports in January was Netherland with 657,728 tonnes, followed by Japan which received 493,421 tonnes, the official data indicated.

South Africa was the world's third largest iron ore exporting country in 2023 with 59.4 million tonnes shipments to global destinations, though well behind Australia (898.5 million tonnes) and Brazil (408 million tonnes), according to data from the World Steel Association.

For China's part, South Africa is mostly among its top three iron ore suppliers besides Australia and Brazil. Last year, China imported a total of 38.3 million tonnes of iron ore from the country, the data from China's General Administration of Customs show.

One of the leading producers of iron ore in South Africa is Kumba Iron Ore, a business unit of Anglo American plc, the London-headquartered minerals and natural resources giant, which runs the Sishen and Khumani in Northern Cape. The Sishen Mine is the largest iron ore mine in South Africa and produced 35.5 million tonnes of iron ore last year, Mysteel Global learns.

Written by Irene Zhuang, zhuangailing@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com