Daily iron ore price update (Caterpillar warns)

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Find below the iron ore price table for July 24,2013:

Capture

I guess the ongoing rebar recovery, which is most remarkable for its sluggishness, is enough for support for now:

;oihbui
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reabr

Meanwhile, mining equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar, dumped a warning last night:

We have revised our outlook for 2013 to reflect sales and revenues in a range of $56 to $58 billion, with profit per share of about $6.50 at the middle of the sales and revenues outlook range. The previous outlook for 2013 sales and revenues was a range of $57 to $61 billion, with profit per share of about $7.00 at the middle of the sales and revenues outlook range.

“Overall end-user demand is similar to our previous outlook, but we now expect a more significant reduction in dealer machine inventory. That’s the main reason for the reduction in the sales and revenues outlook. During the second quarter, dealers increased their utilization of inventory from our product distribution centers, which allows them to meet customer demand with less inventory. With the sharp reduction in dealer inventory and the decline in mining, 2013 is turning out to be a tough year and we’ve already taken action to reduce costs. During the first half of the year,we’ve had temporary factory shutdowns, rolling layoffs throughout much of the company, reductions in our flexible workforce, and we’ve reduced discretionary and program costs. While we’ve taken significant action already, we will be taking additional cost reduction measures in the second half of 2013,” said Oberhelman.

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And where are the cuts greatest? Close to home:

CAT Retail Sales June_1_0
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.