Daily iron ore price update (catch-up and catch-down)

Advertisement

Iron ore spot prices jumped again overnight, up $3.05 to $192.70. Platts has more bullishness today:

Iron ore prices have risen to record highs in recent weeks, largely because supply has not been able to keep pace with demand in China, where crude steel production has grown by 30% over the past five years.

Unless China drastically cuts steel output – which seems unlikely as Q1 output rose 16% on year – or global iron ore supply increases significantly, it is difficult to see what will cause benchmark prices to retreat to consensus views of around $100/mt in the next 12-24 months.

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:
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.