Record iron ore production

Geneva - The world's iron ore market achieved an all-time high for production in 2011 of 1.92 billion tons, up 4.7 per cent from 2010, UNCTAD’s Iron Ore Market 2011–2013 said.

The e-version of the report was released in June. A hard-copy version has now been published by the UNCTAD Trust Fund on Iron Ore Information Iron ore production continued to grow after the gradual post-crisis recovery of the global steel industry, as new mining capacity starting operation since May 2011 reached 125 million tons, the report said.

Output of this commodity, a vital for steel production, increased in most regions and countries except Europe (including CIS countries), where production stagnated, the report said.

Among the major producers, Australia increased production by 12.7 per cent, Brazil by 5.1 per cent, and China by 2.1 per cent. Production in India declined to an estimated 196.0 million tons in 2011, down 7.5 per cent.

In 2011, international iron ore trade reached a record 1.115 billion tons as exports increased for the tenth year in a row, the report says. Developing countries accounted for 49.5 per cent of total exports in 2011. Their exports of

iron ore have grown by 104.8 per cent since 2002.

The world recovery in crude steel production since the financial crisis has been almost entirely due to China, where production started increasing again in November 2008, and previous peaks in monthly production had already been matched by April 2009. Subsequently, China’s imports of iron ore increased by 11.0 percent in 2011 compared with 2010, or to 686.7 million tons, and the country accounted for 60.1 percent of total world imports, the report notes.

Steel production elsewhere in the world was also growing though it had still not reached its pre-crisis production levels by the end of 2011.

In Japan, imports of iron ore fell by 4.4 percent to 128.4 million tons. Imports by the Republic of Korea increased by 15.3 percent to 64.9 million tons.

European imports (excluding the CIS countries) rose by 16.8 percent in 2011, reaching 156.4 million tons, or just over 13.7 per cent of world imports.