According to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China, China produced a total of around 330.8 million tons of iron ore in the first four months of this year, dropping by nearly 1% compared to the year-ago period.

The iron ore output in April amounted to approximately 85.8 million tons, down by 4.5% year on year. The import prices during the period showed an overall downward trend, because the steel producers’ profitability decreased, which weakened the demand for iron ore imports.