Riding on the back of a recent export tax cuts, Indian iron ore shipments to China rose to 8.74 million tons in November, a marked increase over October"s 4.14 million tons of exports.

The Chinese focus on Indian iron ore is also a way of putting pressure on Rio and BHP to drop iron ore prices, The China Iron and Steel Association has called for iron ore producers to bring prices back to levels last seen in 1994, an 82 percent cut from current levels.

The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries reported that sales to China last month were slightly lower than November 2007, but significantly better than October 2008. Of India"s 160 million tons of production, about 100 million was shipped to China. Source: Yieh.com