An official with the Ministry of Commerce has forecast that China will import only about 35 million tons of iron ore in 2006, a sharp fall from this year's expected import of 264 million tons, which accounts for 41.6 percent of the global iron ore trade.

The source owed the import cut to China's current macro-control policy, which has resulted in an oversupply of steel, cement and aluminum due to increasing supply and weakening domestic demand.

Statistics from customs showed that in the first 10 months of this year, China imported 220 million tons of iron ore and the import volume stood at 14.85 billion US dollars, an increase of 32.2 percent and 44 percent, respectively, from the same period of last year.

China paid a big price for importing iron ore this year due to rocketing prices.

Source: Xinhua