China, India rising steel industries to boost Asia Pacific iron ore production

The new report* states that future iron production growth in the Asia-Pacific region, which is the largest producer and consumer of iron ore in the world, is expected to rocket, primarily due to demand from these two emerging economies.

Asia-Pacific’s iron ore consumption increased from 348.2 million metric tons in 2000 to an estimated 1.6 billion metric tons in 2011. During 2012-2020, iron ore consumption in Asia is expected to increase at a CAGR of 5.2% to reach 2.6 billion metric tons in 2020. This is owing to rising demand from the steel industries of China and India, which are expected to account for a combined demand of 2.3 billion metric tons of iron ore by 2020.

The Asia-Pacific region’s substantial reserves of iron ore represent a major strength over other iron ore mining regions across the globe. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Asia had 61.3 billion metric tons or 36% of global crude iron ore reserves at the end of 2010. These reserves by and large are mainly located in Australia, China, Kazakhstan and India.

The region’s iron ore production stood at 1.8 billion metric tons in 2011, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1% to reach 3.1 billion metric tons in 2020, surpassing consumption by 500 million metric tons.