Iron ore shipments from Port Hedland in Australia rose again month-on-month and also year-on-year in March to a record volume, according to statistics released by the Port Authority and monitored by Kallanish. Total global shipments of the product from the Pilbara port also rose both month-on-month and y-o-y.

Cargoes to China grew on-month to 32,590,308 tonnes, and were 11.8% up from February’s 29,144,710t. Shipments were also higher y-o-y, by 4% against the volume of 31,235,737t exported in March 2015. The average volume shipped/day also upticked slightly to 1,051.300t, the highest rate seen since November 2015.

Total (global) March iron ore shipments also grew from those in February to 39,534,481t, a month-on-month increase of 8% and an all-time record. The average volume shipped/day value however was 1,275,306t, down on the figure of 1,308,387t exported the previous month.

Iron ore shipments to South Korea in March fell heavily against those in February to 2,115,799t and were also slightly down y-o-y.

March shipments to Japan also grew significantly again month-on-month to stay well above the 2 million tonnes marker with a volume of 2,572,367t, an 18.5% on-month increase.

The port handles iron ore shipments for BHP Billiton, Fortescue Metals and Roy Hill.