PARIS: The iron ore imports by France during the month of January this year dropped sharply over the imports recorded during the same month a year ago. This is as per the latest estimate figures released by EUROSTAT. The imports during the month tumbled by 22.9% year-on-year.
The country’s iron ore imports during the month totaled 1.211 million tonnes. The iron ore imports had totaled 1.570 million tonnes during January last year. The imports of non-agglomerated iron ore by the country dropped 23.8% year-on-year to 1.019 million tonnes. A yearly decline of 17.6% was witnessed in the imports of agglomerated iron ore too.
The largest import source of iron ore by France during Jan ‘15 was Brazil. The total imports from Brazil amounted to 600,051 tonnes. The imports from Brazil declined sharply by over 42% from 1,051, 677 tonnes during Jan ’14. The second largest exporter of iron ore to France was Canada. The total imports by France from the country totaled 404,366 tonnes during January this year. In third place was Liberia (134,101 tonnes), followed by Sweden (43,840 tonnes) and Norway (27,457 tonnes).
The average import price during January this year declined 49.2% over the previous year to $66.8 per tonne CFR. The prices had averaged at $131.3 during the same month a year ago. The total value of imports amounted to $80.859 million, significantly lower by 60.8% when compared with the import values of $206.164 million recorded during January 2014.
