China is expected to import 240 million tons of iron ore this year, up about 15 percent over last year, a source with the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

The ministry predicted that China's import of iron ore will not increase rapidly in the next few months and the price will go down by a large margin from last year's level.

In the second half of 2005, the impact of state macro-control policies will go on to be apparent, which will bring the slowing-down of the growth of iron and steel industry and further ease the demand for iron ore.

On the other hand, the supply of domestic iron ore is going up, said the ministry, noting that the domestic iron ore output for the whole year is estimated at 370 million tons for the whole year, up 19 percent on a year-on-year base.

In the first six months this year, domestic iron output reached 174 million tons, up 26.5 percent over the same period last year.

In the January-June period, China imported 130 million tons of iron ore, up 34.5 percent on a year-on-year base. The growth rate was six percentage points lower than in the same period of 2004.

China is now the biggest importer of iron ore in the world. In 2004, China imported 208 million tons of iron ore, accounting for one third of the world's total maritime trade volume. 

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2005)