Why iron ore miner shares are still struggling

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Rebar and Dalian futures are flattish today in China but iron ore miners are still enjoying a little bounce on overnight action. The equity price rebound so far has been pretty weak and a quick take from UBS shows why. At current price levels the hit to earnings for miners is still big:

 ubs

All else remaining equal, our BHP & RIO earnings estimates for CY 15 would be -2% and -6% respectively under a spot scenario. Nevertheless, RIO would trade on cheaper spot multiples at 10.3x CY 15E PE vs BHP at 12.6x CY 15E. Iron ore: The spot iron ore price is 5% below our CY 15 forecast, and implies a 38% downgrade to FMG’s FY 15E earnings and -143% to AGO.

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.