Chinese iron ore miners’ profits surge 20% YoY Jan-May

China’s large- and medium-sized iron ore mining companies earned a total of Yuan 6.8 billion ($1 billion) from sales of iron ore concentrates over January-May, higher by 20.2% on year, according to the latest survey from the Metallurgical Mines’ Association of China. Improved prices for their concentrates are what did the trick, MMAC data show.
Over January-May, Chinese steel mills had stronger demand for domestic concentrates in order to produce pellets inhouse and shave some of their steelmaking costs, especially when they saw that imported iron ore was becoming more expensive.