Daily iron ore rice update (tug boats)

Here are the iron ore charts for April 1, 2014:

Mixed results in paper markets, then, with rebar futures eking out a tiny gain. But real demand clearly still stinks with steel prices going nowhere fast. Physical markets aren’t supported by the Baltic Dry, either, which has fallen another 2.5%.

My guess is that the rally in spot has as much to do with the threat of tug boat strikes in Port Hedland as it does hopes for Chinese stimulus or any return of real steel demand. But that dispute could run for another month so who knows what effect it might have on spot over that period?

Share

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.