Iron ore to the moon!

Wednesday 7 January 2026

There is no recovery in Chinese steel, but there is one in iron ore!

The late-year seasonal increase in steel production was very muted.

These price movements coincided with capacity utilization increases among Chinese steel producers, with blast furnace operations rising 0.32% and electric arc furnaces climbing 1.93% during the final week of 2025.

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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.