The biggest 5 spenders on imported iron ore are mainland China, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Taiwan. Combined, that quintet of major iron ore importers were responsible for 88% of the world’s total purchases of imported iron ore during 2024.
From a continental perspective, Asian countries bought the highest dollar worth of iron ore imported from foreign markets with purchases costing a total $165.1 billion or 91.2% of the worldwide total. In second place were iron ore importers in Europe at 6.1%.
Tinier percentages were attributed to buyers in Africa (1.04%), North America (1.02%), Latin America (0.6%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Australia and New Zealand only in Oceania (0.05%).
For research purposes, the 4-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix is 2601 for iron ores and concentrates including roasted iron pyrites.
Iron Ore Imports by Country
Below are the 15 countries that imported the highest dollar value worth of iron ore during 2024.
- mainland China: US$133.2 billion (73.6% of total imported iron ore)
- Japan: $11.3 billion (6.2%)
- South Korea: $8.3 billion (4.6%)
- Germany: $4.2 billion (2.3%)
- Taiwan: $2.3 billion (1.3%)
- Malaysia: $1.6 billion (0.9%)
- Indonesia: $1.52 billion (0.8%)
- Vietnam: $1.47 billion (0.8%)
- Bahrain: $1.23 billion (0.7%)
- Türkiye: $1.21 billion (0.7%)
- France: $1.15 billion (0.6%)
- Netherlands: $1 billion (0.6%)
- Oman: $954.1 million (0.5%)
- Egypt: $845.3 million (0.5%)
- United States: $834.2 million (0.5%)
By value, the listed 15 countries purchased 94.5% of all iron ore imported in 2024.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing markets for iron ore from 2023 to 2024 were: Indonesia (up 14.3%), Netherlands (up 9.8%), Türkiye (up 8.7%) and Malaysia (up 8.6%).
Those countries that posted declines in their imported iron ore purchases were led by: Egypt (down -48.1% from 2023), Oman (down -32%), Bahrain (down -23.5%) and Vietnam (down -21.2%).
Searchable List of Iron Ore Importing Countries in 2024
The top 100 buyers of imported iron ore in the automated database below accounted for 99.999997% of globally imported iron ore during 2024.
| Rank | Importer | Iron Ore Imports (US$) | 2023-4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | mainland China | $133,226,590,000 | -0.4% |
| 2. | Japan | $11,284,102,000 | -2.7% |
| 3. | South Korea | $8,255,792,000 | +2.2% |
| 4. | Germany | $4,204,095,000 | -3.6% |
| 5. | Taiwan | $2,286,423,000 | +1.8% |
| 6. | Malaysia | $1,600,254,000 | +8.6% |
| 7. | Indonesia | $1,519,829,000 | +14.3% |
| 8. | Vietnam | $1,468,435,000 | -21.2% |
| 9. | Bahrain | $1,225,393,000 | -23.5% |
| 10. | Türkiye | $1,207,462,000 | +8.7% |
| 11. | France | $1,149,817,000 | +1.7% |
| 12. | Netherlands | $1,047,686,000 | +9.8% |
| 13. | Oman | $954,081,000 | -32% |
| 14. | Egypt | $845,294,000 | -48.1% |
| 15. | United States | $834,204,000 | -6.6% |
| 16. | Philippines | $797,166,000 | +24.2% |
| 17. | Canada | $777,364,000 | -2.6% |
| 18. | Belgium | $766,724,000 | -11.4% |
| 19. | Algeria | $693,484,000 | -15.7% |
| 20. | Argentina | $652,865,000 | -2% |
| 21. | Poland | $517,433,000 | +9.9% |
| 22. | Spain | $515,449,000 | -9.1% |
| 23. | India | $513,935,000 | -1.7% |
| 24. | Slovakia | $487,628,000 | -18.8% |
| 25. | United Kingdom | $438,534,000 | -49.8% |
| 26. | Finland | $436,834,000 | -0.2% |
| 27. | Italy | $412,593,000 | -30.2% |
| 28. | Czech Republic | $400,460,000 | -31.2% |
| 29. | Trinidad/Tobago | $390,490,000 | +3% |
| 30. | Russia | $379,601,000 | +1.1% |
| 31. | Saudi Arabia | $331,535,000 | -28.9% |
| 32. | Libya | $263,403,000 | -18.8% |
| 33. | Mexico | $229,446,000 | +276.1% |
| 34. | Qatar | $226,034,000 | -48.9% |
| 35. | United Arab Emirates | $200,658,000 | -79.9% |
| 36. | Serbia | $170,258,000 | -21.5% |
| 37. | Australia | $90,091,000 | -8% |
| 38. | Romania | $76,075,000 | -34.4% |
| 39. | Kenya | $60,879,000 | +21.7% |
| 40. | Chile | $36,607,000 | -51% |
| 41. | Mozambique | $23,347,000 | +11.7% |
| 42. | Sweden | $13,262,000 | +0.7% |
| 43. | Denmark | $5,193,000 | +88.5% |
| 44. | Brazil | $4,956,000 | -93.3% |
| 45. | Kyrgyzstan | $3,433,000 | +47.9% |
| 46. | Norway | $3,307,000 | -38.3% |
| 47. | Nepal | $2,956,000 | +65% |
| 48. | Greece | $2,507,000 | +1771% |
| 49. | Iceland | $2,148,000 | -42.8% |
| 50. | Switzerland | $1,466,000 | -15.8% |
| 51. | Thailand | $1,337,000 | +17.6% |
| 52. | Paraguay | $1,127,000 | +522.7% |
| 53. | Portugal | $956,000 | +76.1% |
| 54. | Jordan | $947,000 | -24.5% |
| 55. | Bulgaria | $901,000 | -26.1% |
| 56. | Iraq | $789,000 | -96.5% |
| 57. | Hungary | $674,000 | -97.7% |
| 58. | Turkmenistan | $654,000 | -35.3% |
| 59. | Mongolia | $544,000 | +92.2% |
| 60. | Congo | $473,000 | 0% |
| 61. | Ukraine | $414,000 | +206.7% |
| 62. | Armenia | $363,000 | -63.3% |
| 63. | Moldova | $289,000 | 0% |
| 64. | Georgia | $285,000 | 0% |
| 65. | Pakistan | $277,000 | +4.9% |
| 66. | Estonia | $188,000 | +16% |
| 67. | Tanzania | $183,000 | +346.3% |
| 68. | Botswana | $180,000 | -10% |
| 69. | Slovenia | $177,000 | +18% |
| 70. | Israel | $172,000 | -28.9% |
| 71. | South Africa | $154,000 | +13.2% |
| 72. | Zimbabwe | $130,000 | +465.2% |
| 73. | Guatemala | $129,000 | -0.8% |
| 74. | Croatia | $128,000 | +32% |
| 75. | Ethiopia | $127,000 | 0% |
| 76. | Iran | $107,000 | +3467% |
| 77. | North Macedonia | $106,000 | -35.8% |
| 78. | New Zealand | $91,000 | +85.7% |
| 79. | Luxembourg | $47,000 | +62.1% |
| 80. | Colombia | $42,000 | +366.7% |
| 81. | Sierra Leone | $40,000 | 0% |
| 82. | Cyprus | $38,000 | +8.6% |
| 83. | El Salvador | $38,000 | +15.2% |
| 84. | Ireland | $35,000 | -87.5% |
| 85. | Zambia | $35,000 | -18.6% |
| 86. | Bosnia/erzegovina | $28,000 | -33.3% |
| 87. | Lithuania | $23,000 | +21.1% |
| 88. | Uzbekistan | $22,000 | -87.8% |
| 89. | Kazakhstan | $22,000 | -50% |
| 90. | Gabon | $20,000 | 0% |
| 91. | Namibia | $10,000 | -82.5% |
| 92. | Singapore | $9,000 | +28.6% |
| 93. | Eswatini | $6,000 | 0% |
| 94. | Malawi | $5,000 | 0% |
| 95. | Peru | $4,000 | +300% |
| 96. | Burkina Faso | $4,000 | 0% |
| 97. | Laos | $4,000 | -95.5% |
| 98. | Bolivia | $4,000 | 0% |
| 99. | Bahamas | $4,000 | -93.3% |
| 100. | Bangladesh | $3,000 | -62.5% |
Expanding the scope to the above 100 importers, the greatest gainers from 2023 to 2024 were Iran (up 3,467%), Greece (up 1,771%), Paraguay (up 522.7%), Zimbabwe (up 465.2%), Colombia (up 366.7%) and Tanzania (up 346.3%).
Note: You can change the presentation order by clicking the triangle icon at the top of any of the columns below. An entry of 0% in the right-most column means no 2023 data was available.
Top Iron Ore Importers Ranked by Shipment Weight
Worldwide imports of iron ore weighed a total 1.634 billion tons in 2024, up by 5.4% over the 5-year period starting from 1.554 billion tons in 2020.
The global shipment weight of imported iron ore rose 2.9% from 1.593 billion tons during 2023.
- mainland China: 1,237,266,528 tons of imported iron ore (up 4.9% from 2023)
- Japan: 96,402,231 tons (down -5.7%)
- South Korea: 69,487,783 tons (up 1.8%)
- Germany: 34,875,248 tons (down -1.3%)
- Malaysia: 21,283,320 tons (up 1.8%)
- Taiwan: 20,058,925 tons (up 3.5%)
- Vietnam: 17,757,895 tons (up 12.9%)
- Indonesia: 13,915,134 tons (up 22.1%)
- Bahrain: 13,509,609 tons (down -2.8%)
- Oman: 12,408,822 tons (up 10%)
- Türkiye: 10,006,113 tons (up 12.6%)
- France: 9,868,711 tons (up 15.6%)
- Canada: 8,001,413 tons (down -2.9%)
- Egypt: 6,719,496 tons (down -33.8%)
- Belgium: 6,397,875 tons (down -0.5%)
By shipment weight of iron ore, double-digit gainers from 2023 to 2024 were Indonesia (up 22.1%), France (up 15.6%), Vietnam (up 12.9%), Türkiye (up 12.6%) then Oman (up 10%).
The severest decliner was Egypt with imported iron ore by shipment weight plummeting -33.8% from 2023, well ahead of importers in Japan (down -5.7%) and Canada (down -2.9%).
Average Prices for Iron Ore by Major Import Country
In 2024, the world’s overall average unit price paid for imported iron ore was US$110 per ton.
That average price per ton is 3.8% greater than the average $106 in 2020. From 2023 to 2024, the average tonnage rate for globally imported iron ore decelerated by -6% compared to $117 per ton.
Listed below are the average unit prices paid by the 15 top spenders on imported iron ore during 2024.
- mainland China: US$108 per ton of iron ore imports (down -4.4% from 2023)
- Japan: $117 per ton (up 3.5%)
- South Korea: $119 per ton (up 0.8%)
- Germany: $121 per ton (down -1.6%)
- Taiwan: $114 per ton (down -1.7%)
- Malaysia: $75 per ton (up 7.1%)
- Indonesia: $109 per ton (down -6.8%)
- Vietnam: $83 per ton (down -29.7%)
- Bahrain: $91 per ton (down -20.9%)
- Türkiye: $121 per ton (down -3.2%)
- France: $117 per ton (down -11.4%)
- Oman: $77 per ton (down -37.9%)
- Egypt: $126 per ton (down -21.3%)
- United States: $170 per ton (down -2.3%)
- Philippines: $127 per ton (up 8.5%)
The lowest average unit prices per ton were collected from importers in Malaysia, Oman, Vietnam, Bahrain and mainland China.
Highest average prices that exceeded the global average of $110 per ton were paid by importers in the United States of America, Philippines, Egypt, Germany, Türkiye, South Korea, Japan, France and Taiwan.
Iron Ore Imported into China
Below are the top 15 suppliers from which mainland China imported the highest dollar value worth of iron ore during 2024. Within parenthesis is the percentage change in value for each supplying country.
- Australia: US$80 billion (down -4.7% from 2023)
- Brazil: $28.9 billion (up 2.8%)
- South Africa: $4.4 billion (up 3.5%)
- India: $3.5 billion (down -1.4%)
- Peru: $2.8 billion (up 9.4%)
- Canada: $2 billion (down -3.9%)
- Ukraine: $1.59 billion (up 1576%)
- Chile: $1.56 billion (down -4.4%)
- Iran: $1.13 billion (down -12.1%)
- Oman: $1.08 billion (up 154.6%)
- Mauritania: $1.02 billion (up 19.7%)
- Russia: $946.1 million (down -10.8%)
- Sierra Leone: $847.8 million (down -4.2%)
- Kazakhstan: $526 million (down -1.5%)
- Mongolia: $508.6 million (up 39.4%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 98.2% of iron ore imported by mainland China in 2024.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing suppliers of iron ore to China from 2023 to 2024 were: Ukraine (up 1,576%), Oman (up 154.6%), Mongolia (up 39.4%) and Mauritania (up 19.7%).
Countries that experienced declines in the value of their iron ore supplied to Chinese importers included: Iran (down -12.1% from 2023), Russia (down -10.8%), Australia (down -4.7%) and Chile (down -4.4%).
Overall, the value of China’s imported iron ore flatlined via an average -0.4% slowdown from all supplying countries since 2020 when iron ore purchased cost $133.8 billion.
Iron Ore Imported into Japan
Below are the top 15 suppliers from which Japan imported the highest dollar value worth of iron ore during 2024. Within parenthesis is the percentage change in value for each supplying country.
- Australia: US$5.6 billion (down -3.2% from 2023)
- Brazil: $4.1 billion (up 2.6%)
- Canada: $920 million (down -2%)
- South Africa: $463.5 million (up 2.7%)
- Peru: $63.5 million (down -16.9%)
- Chile: $54.5 million (down -49.6%)
- United States: $38.5 million (down -69.9%)
- Mauritania: $23.6 million (down -72.6%)
- Sweden: $5.5 million (up 183766.7%)
- New Zealand: $5.2 million (down -56.9%)
- United Arab Emirates: $117,000 (2023 data unavailable)
- Bahrain: $2,000 (2023 data unavailable)
- mainland China: $2,000 (down -75%)
- Pakistan: $2,000 (2023 data unavailable)
- Czech Republic: $1,000 (2023 data unavailable)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 100% of iron ore imported by Japan in 2024.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing suppliers of iron ore to Japan from 2023 to 2024 were: Sweden (up 183766.7%), South Africa (up 2.7%) and Brazil (up 2.6%).
Countries that experienced declines in the value of their iron ore supplied to Japanese importers included: mainland China (down -75% from 2023), Mauritania (down -72.6%), United States of America (down -69.9%) and New Zealand (down -56.9%).
Overall, the value of Japan’s imported iron ore fell by an average -2.7% from all supplying countries since 2020 when iron ore purchased cost $11.6 billion.
Iron Ore Imported into South Korea
Below are the top suppliers from which South Korea imported the highest dollar value worth of iron ore during 2024. Within parenthesis is the percentage change in value for each supplying country.
- Australia: US$5.5 billion (up 0.2% from 2023)
- Brazil: $1.3 billion (up 22.1%)
- South Africa: $701.3 million (up 10.8%)
- Canada: $501.4 million (down -0.2%)
- Chile: $138.6 million (down -27.2%)
- Bahrain: $30.1 million (down -74.2%)
- India: $25.2 million (up 2%)
- mainland China: $17.9 million (up 198,867%)
- Sweden: $10.8 million (up 180533.3%)
- Mali: $4.7 million (2023 data unavailable)
- Netherlands: $19,000 (down -44.1%)
- Pakistan: $2,000 (2023 data unavailable)
- Germany: $1,000 (2023 data unavailable)
- Mauritania: $1,000 (2023 data unavailable)
By value, the listed countries shipped 99.99999% of iron ore imported by South Korea in 2024.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing suppliers of iron ore to South Korea from 2023 to 2024 were: mainland China (up 198,867%), Sweden (up 180,533%), Brazil (up 22.1%) and South Africa (up 10.8%).
Countries that experienced declines in the value of their iron ore supplied to Korean importers included: Bolivia (down -100% from 2023), Bahrain (down -74.2%), Netherlands (down -44.1%) and Chile (down -27.2%).
Overall, the value of South Korea’s imported iron ore rose by an average 2.2% from all supplying countries since 2020 when iron ore purchased cost $8.1 billion.
Iron Ore Imported into Germany
Below are the top 15 suppliers from which Germany imported the highest dollar value worth of iron ore during 2024. Within parenthesis is the percentage change in value for each supplying country.
- Canada: US$1.4 billion (up 3.9% from 2023)
- South Africa: $887.4 million (up 8.2%)
- Brazil: $818.6 million (up 3%)
- Sweden: $559.3 million (down -20.8%)
- United States: $176.5 million (down -49.5%)
- Ukraine: $160.8 million (up 259.5%)
- Mauritania: $69.2 million (up 40.2%)
- Liberia: $56.6 million (down -34.3%)
- Norway: $45.8 million (down -13.8%)
- Mexico: $4.9 million (down -54.1%)
- Netherlands: $2.7 million (up 14%)
- Finland: $1.4 million (down -27.9%)
- Türkiye: $610,000 (down -38.7%)
- Libya: $363,000 (down -96.1%)
- Spain: $357,000 (up 100.6%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 99.99% of iron ore imported by Germany in 2024.
Among the above countries, the fastest-growing suppliers of iron ore to Germany from 2023 to 2024 were: Ukraine (up 259.5%), Spain (up 100.6%), Mauritania (up 40.2%) and the Netherlands (up 14%).
Countries that experienced declines in the value of their iron ore supplied to German importers included: Libya (down -96.1% from 2023), Mexico (down -54.1%), United States of America (down -49.5%) and Türkiye (down -38.7%).
Overall, the value of Germany’s imported iron ore went down by an average -3.6% from all supplying countries since 2020 when iron ore purchased cost $4.4 billion.
See also Iron Ore Exports by Country, Top Tin Exporters, Copper Ore Exports by Country and China’s Top Trading Partners
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Imports – Commodities. Accessed on June 14, 2025
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on June 14, 2025