BEIJING, Jan 14 (Reuters) - China’s iron ore imports hit a record high in 2020, jumping 9.5% from a year earlier as the country beefed up spending on infrastructure to help spur the world’s second-biggest economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. China, the world’s top steel producer, imported 1.17 billion tonnes of iron ore in 2020, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Thursday. That passed annual imports of 1.069 billion tonnes in 2019 and the previous record of 1.075 billion tonnes set in 2017. Iron ore imports in December were 96.75 million tonnes, down 1.4% from a month earlier and were 4.5% lower than the same month in 2019, according to customs. (Reporting by Min Zhang and Shivani Singh; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)