In the first half of this year, the Chinese iron ore spot trading platform China Beijing International Mining Exchange (CMBX) recorded the conclusion of 84 deals for a total of 7.5594 million mt of iron ore, exceeding the 7 million mt transacted in the whole of 2012, according to the CBMX data.In the first half of the current year, the number of spot transactions for iron ore yet to be delivered to China totaled 49, amounting to 5.526 million mt with a total transaction value of $742 million, while there were 35 spot transactions for iron ore already at Chinese ports, amounting to 2.0334 million mt with an overall transaction value of RMB 2.064 billion ($334 million).
The total transacted volume of 7.5594 million mt at the CBMX trading platform in the first half this year accounted for nearly two percent of China's total iron ore imports of 384.52 million mt in the given period. However, the transacted volume of 7 million mt in 2012 constituted less than one percent of the country's total iron ore imports of 740 million mt in the given year.
The CBMX commented that the Chinese steel sector still faces the challenges of oversupply and low profitability amid sluggish demand from the downstream side.
