Iron ore books a date with $80

David Llewellyn-Smith

Thursday 22 January 2026

The ferrous jaws have only marginally compressed.

To summarise.

Hot metal ouput is hovering somewhere around 2.3 mt per day, which is mediocre.
Port inventories of iron ore are still skyrocketing. MOFCOM reported it at 170.44MT yesterday. A crazy number.
Steel inventories are high with limited need to restock.
Steel exports are under pressure from all quarters.

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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.