Via FT Alphaville comes this quote from Charlie Aitken: Right here right now the spot markets are in turmoil as Vale dumps cargoes, traders who have been caught long at higher prices cut that trading inventory, and Chinese steel mills sit on their hands and run down inventories. It is estimated that Chinese steel mill
Paul Bloxham of HSBC recently released a very good piece of research arguing that the global economy had made a structural shift towards emerging markets growth that would continue a powerful surge in infrastructure growth and support high prices for commodities for decades. I agreed with his note but disagreed with its conclusion, that this
By David Llewellyn-Smith The iron ore complex tanked again yesterday: Perhaps some hope in the contango with the 12month which did signal the bottom in last year’s crash: But Chinese steel prices are still falling too: Here are some choice iron ore quotes from Reuters: “We believe that China is in the middle of a
Courtesy of ANZ. ANZ Commodity Daily 693 290812
By David Llewellyn-Smith Yesterday in the land of commodity research, various research houses attempted to catch up to the reality of a falling iron ore price. Until this recent price collapse (down 30% in a couple of months to $95) iron ore prices were widely considered to have a “price floor at $120”. The price
Excerpted exclusively from Michael Pettis latest newsletter: For the past two years, as regular readers know, I have been bearish on hard commodities. Prices may have dropped substantially from their peaks during this time, but I don’t think the bear market is over. I think we still have a very long way to go. There
From The Australian: GLOBAL investment bank Morgan Stanley has downgraded its price forecasts for bulk commodities and warned that the spot price of iron ore could fall as low as $US83 a tonne in the coming months. …“Similarly, hard coking coal prices could have downside of 5 per cent to 8 per cent from the
There’s no good news in the ANZ’s new note on iron ore. It’s brief, too the point and gloomy. Farewell $120 price floor. ANZ Commodity Insight Iron Ore Aug12
All quiet on the ore front yesterday with little movement anywhere (though swaps haven’t updated yet): As some buying support appears to be coming back into the market, I thought it worth revisiting a chart from Morgan Stanley from last year’s falls: Take a close look at the very sensitive relationship between the iron ore
From the ANZ: Newcastle FOB physical thermal coal prices were steady last week at USD89.05/t. Although market activity remained subdued, the end of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in Indonesia should see more movement this week. Having hit a low of a low of USD81-82/t in late July, thermal coal prices have held up well. The same cannot be
Friday’s ore price movements showed some stabilisation: With 12 month swaps catching a break, there is some hope that last’s week’s heavy dump was the capitulation phase for the ore price. There is not much hope in the fundamentals, however, with rebar falling to a new low and little discussion so far of Chinese steel-makers
Courtesy of ANZ. ANZ Commodity Daily 690 240812
Fresh and cross-posted from FT Alphaville, comes this unusually frank assessment of Fortescue and iron ore. Remember the joke about the $120 iron ore price floor? How we laughed. And for continued amusement here’s Nev Power, chief executive of Fortescue Metals,the highly-leveraged poster child of the Australian resources boom, discussing iron ore at Wednesday’s annual results announcement. From
By David Llewellyn-Smith Several pictures speak billions of words. $100 iron ore passes like a thief in the night.
Find below a solid note from NAB on the fallout from the US drought on soft commodities, with some good news for exports for a change. Implications of the US Drought – August 2012
I have been a bit confused by some of the spot versus contract pricing going in the market for coking coal. It appears I got my quarters mixed up. From ANZ today, there’s clarity, sadly: Newcastle Sept coal futures fell mildly to USD91.5/t. China’s total coal imports fell 10.3% m/m to 20.2mt in July, but is still
Ore got walloped and swaps got monstered again yesterday: Here’s the latest on market internals from Reuters: Shanghai steel futures hit a record low on Wednesday, exerting more pressure on prices of the raw material iron ore whose freefall has forced Chinese steel producers to skip contracted cargoes. Chinese mills, the world’s biggest iron ore
Courtesy of ANZ. ANZ Commodity Daily 688 220812
The world steel association released its July production report overnight and the news is not especially good: World crude steel production for the 62 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 130 million tonnes (Mt) in July 2012, an increase of 2.0% compared to July 2011. China’s crude steel production for July 2012
Courtesy of ANZ. ANZ Commodity Daily 687 210812
Iron ore weakness continued yesterday: 12m swaps busted the ton. Here’s a long term chart: Sorry to harp on this, but swaps are rapidly approaching the 2010 low of $98.50 that marks the neckline on the giant post-GFC head and shoulders pattern. The news from China was also poor. From Reuters: An unexpected rebound in
From the SMH: The chief executive of Yancoal Australia says coal prices are falling faster than miners can keep up, as the China-backed coalminer said it would halt expansion and seek broad cost cuts. Yancoal chief Murray Bailey told analysts today that the economy of Australia’s largest export market, China, had slowed markedly in relation
Courtesy of ANZ. ANZ Commodity Daily 686 200812 (1)
By David Llewellyn-Smith I know that at the moment it’s much more fashionable to celebrate the bubble in the Australian dollar than it is to point to weakening fundamentals, but the fact is our terms of trade are falling fast. The prime culprit remains iron ore, which late last week broke down again: And the
Courtesy of Sober Look: China’s Ministry of Commerce blamed the increase in vegetable prices on “strong winds and rainfall in the country’s eastern regions” that “disrupted production and logistics.” Nevertheless vegetable prices are up 15.4% over the past four weeks. China Daily: – The wholesale prices of 18 types of vegetables in 36 cities rose
Courtesy of Sober Look: Brent crude oil priced in euros hit a new high today of €94.83/barrel, exceeding the highs reached in 08 as well as early this year. Source: Bloomberg This rally has been driven by four factors: 1. The euro is down close to 15% over the past year. 2. Draghi’s “Believe me,
Yesterday former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry appeared in the below ANU video at the AFR in which he complained about the state of public policy debate (no arguments there), celebrated the fiscal response to the GFC (no argument there, either, beyond the FHOG, which wasn’t Treasury’s idea), mentioned in passing the challenge of the Australian
By Michael Feller Reports last night that Beijing would receive an envoy of Syria’s Assad regime will no doubt rekindle Western commentary that China is supporting a fellow dictatorship in the vain hope that it can stem the tide of freedom and democratisation that is sweeping the Arab world. Yet the reality is a lot
After a few days of stability, the ore price slid again yesterday: And the charts: And Chinese steel prices: The recovery in Chinese bulk shipping indexes remains plateaued:
The ore price fell again yesterday: And as the chart shows, we are now well clear of the neckline on the head shoulder break, which now looks like upside resistance: For those that don’t think that this pattern is text book then this week’s RBA chart pack may convince: Notice the left hand chart with
