Iron ore begins year with a whimper

Tuesday 20 January 2026

Iron ore prices came off again yesterday, but the jaws remain wide. We should be at $90 in a rational market.

CISA data for the first ten days of the year was 1.997mt which is mediocre but OK.

What is worse is that steel inventories at CISA mills are 20% above last year’s levels and are already not much below last year’s February peak.

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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.