Mexican iron ore and pellet production rose year-on-year in November 2019, according to local statistics institute Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (Inegi) data monitored by Kallanish. The increased monthly output, however, could not improve the overall poor performance seen year-to-date.

During November, Mexican iron ore output reached 884,149 tonnes, an 8.4% increase y-o-y and almost 38,037t more compared to that in October. In the first eleven months of last year, the country’s iron ore output totalled 8,898,258t. This volume was down by -7.7% compared to the volume of 9,642,503t during the January-November period in 2018.

The state of Coahuila de Zaragoza was the main producer with an output of 390,634t in November, an increase of 18.2% on-year. Iron ore production in Michoacán de Ocampo rose by 190,810t y-o-y to 256,301t, while Colima region output was -17.1% lower at 172,351t.

In November, Mexican iron ore pellet output amounted to 540,884t. This volume was 17.0% higher on-year and just 0.2% more on that in October 2019. Cumulative iron ore pellet production was 56,294t less on-year at 6,495,405t, or down only -0.8% y-o-y.

First-grade coke production reached 921,163t in January-November, down by -15.1% compared to 1,085,915t in the same period in 2018. In November 2019 alone, first-grade coke output fell by -19.2% y-o-y to 74,005t. This volume was also -7.5% down compared to October, Inegi data show.