China iron ore imports fall to 18-mth low in April as Brazil shipments slide

BEIJING: China's iron ore imports in April fell to the lowest level in 18 months as poor weather in Brazil, the country's second-biggest supplier, disrupted shipments and some production by miner Vale SA was halted after a mine accident.

Arrivals of iron ore, a key steelmaking raw material, were 80.77 million tonnes last month, the lowest since October 2017, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Wednesday. That compares to 86.42 million tonnes in March and 82.92 million tonnes in April 2018.

For the first four months of 2019, China imported 340.21 million tonnes of iron ore, customs data showed, down 3.7 percent from 353.32 million tonnes in the same period last year.