Daily shipping data reveals China's iron-ore import trends

China is the world's biggest iron-ore producer, and it imports most of this key steelmaking ingredient by sea. Once we consider how much iron ore is in the holds of vessels calling at Chinese ports, we can get an early sense of iron-ore imports – and a signal about the economy more broadly – by monitoring shipping traffic.

CEIC offers high-frequency datasets from Marine Traffic that monitor calls at China's ports. Our first chart tracks daily statistics as vessels arrive and are unloaded; we've then overlaid the value and volume of total imports. We can see that the year-on-year rate of change for these four indicators track each other relatively closely, and that the high-frequency data is pointing to a stable reading for import data when it is released.

(We can also clearly see the Lunar New Year seasonal phenomenon, when economic activity dips and then bounces back during the first two months of the calendar year.)

Our second and third charts demonstrate the importance of iron ore imports to the nation's shipping industry and the economy more broadly. Dry bulk carriers, which handle iron-ore cargoes, dominate Chinese maritime transport with a share that approaches 60%; container ships, oil tankers and other categories trail behind. (That's in contrast to the global share; UNCTAD data shows that dry bulk shipping accounts for about 40% of global seaborne trade.)

Meanwhile, demand from Chinese steelmakers has outpaced the country's domestic capacity to mine enough iron ore. This is remarkable, given that China's abundant reserves account for 10.5% of the global total, according to the US Geological Survey. As our third chart shows, domestic iron-ore production peaked in 2013; imports, meanwhile have been steadily climbing for the past 25 years; imported iron ore has surpassed domestic production since 2018. Key suppliers to the global market (and the only nations with more iron-ore reserves than China) include Australia, Brazil and Russia; more than 80% of China's imports come from the two Southern Hemisphere nations.

The dry bulk carrier vessel category also transports other commodities, such as coal and grain. We've added two visualizations of grain and iron-ore imports versus dry bulk shipping – showing how iron ore tracks trends in total bulk shipping more closely.

Our subsequent charts demonstrate the granular data CEIC provides on other dry bulk-shipped commodities. China is also the world's biggest coal importer, with a 29% share; it's followed by India and Japan. Indonesia supplies almost half of that coal to China; Brazil, Mongolia and Australia are also important suppliers.

Concluding with agricultural commodities, we demonstrate China's importance as a market for different foodstuffs. China is a significant wheat importer, but it takes a greater share of the maize market, and is the dominant market for soybeans – accounting for more than half of global imports.

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