Iron ore exports to China through Port Hedland fell a sharp 10% in January from December but were up 4% from January 2020 because of the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday which fell in that month and the start of the COVID driven lockdowns at the same time.
The Pilbara Ports Authority said on Tuesday that iron ore exports to China through Port Hedland last month totalled 35.555 million tonnes, up from 33.977 million tonnes in January 2020, but down a sharp 9.4% from December’s 39.902 million tonnes.
The timing if the holiday usually brings forward imports of key commodities such as iron ore and oil by a month and then the long break is in mid February, as it is this year, that usually sees a rise in Australian iron ore exports to China.
But not this year.
Last year’s timing produced a rise in December shipments but it was complicated by the China wide COVID pandemic lockdowns from the New Year onwards. China’s imports of iron ore were never broken out for January and February, 2020 separately. The total for the two months was give as just over 176 million tonnes by the country’s Customs Administration.
But the New Year holiday starts Thursday (New Year’s Eve), so it is understandable that Australian iron ore exports were higher compared to January last year, but that doesn’t explain the full extent of the near 10% fall from December last year to January.
Port Hedland was closed for 26 hours in December but while January saw announcements of inner berths being cleared because of bad weather, Tuesday’s announcement made no mention of any impact on shipments.
January’s exports were also down sharply from the 46.186 million tonnes shipped to China in June of last year.
The authority said the port of Port Hedland shipped 42.5 million tonnes of iron ore in January, up just over 5% from 40.490 million in January 2020 but down 15% from the 46.498 million in December.
