China’s purchases of iron ore from India rocketed to an eight-year high in the first half of 2020, fuelled by supply shocks at major producers and record steel output at the world’s largest steelmaker.

Shipments of the raw material from India more than doubled to 20 million tonne in the six months through June from a year earlier, according to China’s Customs data.

It was also the highest since the South Asian country shipped out 27.8 million tonne in the first half of 2012.

While India’s exports are rising, they were still a small sliver of China’s 547.2 million tonne of total ore imports in the first half.