China imported 45.82 million mt of iron ore from Australia in June, up 31.9% year-on-year and up 1% from May, data released Tuesday by the General Administration of Customs showed.

Australia was the largest supplier of iron ore to China, accounting for 61.5% of total imports in June.

China’s imported a total of 74.56 million mt of iron ore in June, down 3.6% from 77.38 million mt in May.

A mill source in Hunan said Australian miners such as Rio Tinto and FMG were shipping more iron ore to China as they increased their iron ore output.

“The Chinese mills were maintaining their crude steel output in June and domestic miners have been cutting down their production as they are not able to compete with cheaper imported ore which has been on a downtrend recently, said the mill source in Hunan.

Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group reached a 155 million mt/year production capacity target at end March, Platts reported earlier.

Imports from Brazil, China’s second largest iron ore supplier, totaled 12.37 million mt in June, up 52.79% year-on-year and 0.16% month-on-month, the data showed.