Iron ore zombie searches for brains

Thursday 3 July 2025

This is going to be a great short. I’m looking to get set on either side of the coming round of July Politburo meetings.

The Chinese economy is far worse than anybody is talking about. It’s not growing at 5%, or at all, quite possibly.

Steel production is on track to be down by its regulation 2-3% and it will be the same next year and every year after that for as long as matters, as we slide down the construction Everest.

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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.