Commodities

Here are the iron ore charts for March 25, 2014: Stimulus party!

Apologies for being a little late with my daily post today.

Here are the iron ore charts for March 21, 2014:   Well!

Here are the iron ore charts for March 20,2014: Nothing much going on here.

From the World Steel Association: World crude steel production for the 65 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 125 million tonnes (Mt) in February 2014, an increase of 0.6% compared to February 2013.

From Platts: An industry group representing Chinese iron ore miners aims to satisfy 50% of the country’s annual iron ore consumption with domestic supply by 2025, up from the current 30%, via consolidation and expansion of mining companies, a senior official with the Metallurgical Mines’ Association of China said this week.

From Business Spectator: Gina Rinehart has secured backing from a group of global banks and export credit agencies for a new $US10 billion ($A11.0bn) iron-ore mine that can feed Asian steel demand, just as miners like BHP Billiton scale back investments amid a broad decline in commodity prices.

Here are the iron ore price charts for March 19, 2014: Rebar average has bottomed and stability has returned to wider markets.

Via Zero Hedge comes this must read piece from Goldman Sachs on the unwind of China’s manifold commodity financing scams.

Here are the iron ore charts for March 18,2014: The capesize component of the Baltic Dry surged again yesterday by 4.5%, those are the kinds of jumps we can associate with restocking though the aggregate level is not yet at levels indicating such.

Morgan Stanley is all for more China exposure: We believe the recent sharp sell-off in copper and iron ore prices has its origins in credit tightness in China.

Find below the iron ore charts for March 17, 2014: Nothing terribly inspiring there.

Cross-posted from the SMH blog: Australian exporters are set to benefit from the spike in wheat prices, as ongoing concerns about the crisis in Ukraine, supply delays in the Americas and fears about the United States’ winter wheat production lift the commodity to its strongest yearly start since 2008.

Here’s a chart from UBS to raise a few eyebrows: Any comments on the notion that FMG is cheaper than Vale are welcome!

From Mac Bank today: We expect to see mills starting to replenish some inventory as we head into 2Q (price action since Monday suggests this may already be underway).

Here are the iron ore charts for March 14, 2014: Rebar futures sold off as well.

A couple more data points this afternoon suggest a turn for the better in iron ore markets in the short term.

From Deutsche via FTAlphaville: While some metals merchants could be subject to mark to market margin calls due to RMB depreciation, they might opt to do more transit trades to meet cash requirements rather than selling copper outright, although this may only last for a short period of time.

The AFR‘s Angus Grigg has a piece today that may seem a little behind the times but it’s not: China faces three major problems and overcoming any of them will be negative for iron ore.

Gina’s folks are putting on a brave face.

And so, our wild ride goes on.

A quick update to key iron ore paper markets.