China's nickel ore imports from Indonesia surged 23.4% in October from the previous month, customs data showed on Monday, as Chinese buyers continue to stock up ahead of a ban on exports from top miners from January.
China imported 6.85 million tonnes of nickel ore and concentrate last month, according to the General Administration of Customs data. That was down 3.9% from 7.13 million tonnes in September, but up 23.2% from 5.56 million tonnes a year earlier.
Nickel ore is mainly used in China to make nickel pig iron, a raw material for stainless steel production. China's nickel pig iron imports in October fell 18.9% from September to 168,835 tonnes, customs data showed. Imports jumped 85.8% from 90,859 tonnes a year earlier.
Nickel ore shipments from Indonesia were 3.11 million tonnes in October, compared with the 2.52 million tonnes in September and surged 132.1% from 1.34 million tonnes a year earlier.
The last high was recorded in January 2014 when the export ban on Indonesia ore was supposed to come into effect, but has since been delayed to the start of 2020 to redirect the ore for domestic use.
The expedited ban prompted a scramble to ship ore out of Indonesia, with Jakarta imposing a temporary ban on shipments late last month after discovering violations of export rules.
It has since allowed nine companies to resume exports until the end of the year. Indonesia shipped 8.85 million tonnes of nickel ore and nickel products in October, up slightly from 8.79 million tonnes in September, according to the Southeast Asian country's statistics agency.