Steel piles up in China

Friday 3 October 2025

The BHP dispute is capturing the headlines, but it’s the steel glut that is driving ferrous market pricing.

Even after another accident at Simandou yesterday, costing three lives, the market could not find a bid.

The problem is that there is far too much steel, so prices keep falling. This is the perverse fruit of anti-involution policies earlier this year.

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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.