An official with the Ministry of Commerce has forecast that China's iron ore imports would increase by 35 million tons in 2006.

The increase will be a sharp fall from this year's growth rate, he said.

The source attributed the import decrease to China's current macro control policy, which has resulted in an oversupply of steel due to the country's increasing supply and weakening domestic demand.

Statistics from customs showed that in the first 10 months 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.

The growth rates were 6 percentage points and 135 percentage points lower than those in the corresponding period of 2004.

It is estimated China will import 264 million tons of iron ore this year, which accounts for 41.6 percent of the global iron ore trade.

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

Source: Xinhua