Chinese nickel imports fell 36% in January

Import of unprocessed nickel across the country during the month amounted to 26,497 tons, which is significantly lower, by almost 36%, compared to the previous month. Imports from Russia, the largest exporter of nickel products to China, almost halved.

The latest monthly trade statistics released by the General Directorate of Customs of China show a significant reduction in imports of nickel-containing products in the country during the first month of the year. On the other hand, exports recorded a margin transition for the reporting month.

The import of unprocessed nickel across the country during the month amounted to 26,497 tons, which is significantly lower by almost 36% compared to the previous month. Imports amounted to 41,219 tons in January 2017. Imports from Russia, the largest exporter of nickel products to China, almost halved from 21,104 tons in December 2017 to 10,416 tons in January 2018. The share of unprocessed nickel imports from Russia fell sharply from 51% to 39% during the year. Australia came in second with 8,439 tonnes, down from 9,763 tonnes in December last year. Other key suppliers of raw nickel to China were Canada (2,736 million tonnes), South Africa (1,843 million tonnes) and Japan (922 million tonnes).

Imports of nickel mat, oxide and sinter also fell sharply from 26,147 tonnes in December 2017 to 22,094 tonnes in January this year.

Ferronickel imports rose more than 6% month-on-month from 86,645 tons to 91,726 tons. The largest exporters to China during the month were Indonesia (57,620 tonnes), New Caledonia (14,729 tonnes), Myanmar (8,486 tonnes) and Colombia (7486 tonnes).

China's imports of nickel ore and concentrates fell significantly by almost 18% to 2.089 million tonnes. Indonesia was the largest supplier. Imports from this country amounted to 1.091 million tons, followed by the Philippines (696,062 thousand tons), New Caledonia (184,068 thousand tons) and Guatemala (61,923 thousand tons).

Meanwhile, Chinese exports of unprocessed nickel slightly decreased and amounted to 838.6 thousand tons in January 2018. The main export destinations were Italy (404 thousand tons), India (191 thousand tons) and the Netherlands (150 thousand tons).