Are iron ore miners rationing stock? (members)

Friday, 4 July 2014

The Port Hedland Port Authority has released its June shipping figures and the numbers are a little bit of surprise to me. Total shipments fell 7% to 33.6 million tonnes (mt):

In aggregate terms, China accounted for much of the fall but its share still rebounded strongly because other nation’s demand fell faster:

There is no obvious reason for this. The main users of the port are BHP, FMG and AGO and nameplate production is higher than this. Indeed, shipments were higher in March, before peak output was reached. AGO has been laying off staff but has said nothing about winding down output. It only ships a little over 10mt per annum anyway.

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:

$24.99 / month

$249 / year

Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe

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.