China is by far the world's leading iron ore importing country. In 2021, China's iron ore imports amounted to a value of nearly 174 billion U.S. dollars, which accounted for over 70 percent of global iron ore imports that year based on value. The world's second largest importer of iron ore that year was Japan, worth a distant 18 billion U.S. dollars, and accounting for 7.3 percent of global imports.
The total global purchase value of iron ore imports in 2021 amounted to 247.7 billion U.S. dollars.
