Iron ore prices for April 22, 2019: Spot firm. 12 month futures sagged as supply is responding. Steel OK. Here’s the problem a year and more out, via Bloomie: Mining dealmaker Mick Davis has won permission to export iron-ore from a planned mine in West Africa, adding momentum to the industry veteran’s comeback. Davis, through
Iron ore prices for April 17, 2019: Spot spanked on Brucutu. Paper more. Steel solid. Port stocks are climbing, 149mt last week, suggesting no shortage or ore. We might see some price strength as mills restock a little longer but the clear risk now is more price falls moving into May/June which is a
Iron ore prices for April 16, 2019: Spot down. Paper easing. Steel too. The news is Brucutu, via Reuters: A Brazilian state court has authorized iron ore miner Vale SA to resume operations at the Brucutu mine, its largest in Minas Gerais state, according to a court document. Brucutu was shuttered in early February by
Via RIO this morning: Rio Tinto chief executive J-S Jacques said “Our iron ore business faced several challenges at the start of this year, particularly from tropical cyclones. As a result, and following the continuing assessment of damage at the port resulting from the cyclones and other minor disruptions, 2019 guidance for Pilbara shipments is
Via The Australian: Chinese state-owned power stations are specifically requesting coal from Indonesia, rather than Australia, as they put out tenders for new coal supplies, according to S&P Global Platts’ Asian thermal coal expert, Michael Cooper. “The state-owned power stations are not buying Australian thermal coal and the traders say there is a political dimension
Iron ore prices for April 12, 2019: Spot was strong and at new highs. Paper is consolidating. Steel is firm. Chinese trade data for March saw a good rebound in steel exports to 6mt and change. Iron ore imports were at 86.4mt, up a little year on year and enough to slow the rolling annual
Via Bloomie: Since last year, the government has doubled down on this kind of “targeted” stimulus, emphasizing the role of consumption and the promotion of a long-standing shift toward services and higher-value manufacturing — and away from expensive mega-projects. …Overall though, the relative restraint of the new stimulus strategy should help slow a build up
Iron ore prices for April 11, 2019: Spot up. Paper calm. Steel up. CISA late March steel output fell sharply and is only up a little year on year. I’ve added a second line (in black) to show what underlying demand is like ex-reforms that shifted illegal scrap production into blast furnaces over the past
Via The Australian: Analysts have sounded a warning over short-term earnings at thermal coal exporters after a slump in demand sent prices to the lowest levels in more than a year. The slump came as Australian politicians engaged in another round of brawling over approvals for Adani’s 28 million-tonne-a-year Carmichael thermal coal mine in Queensland,
Iron ore prices for April 10, 2019: Dancing on a pinhead now. New has Vale in more trouble, via Reuters: Prosecutors are planning to file criminal charges against Brazil’s miner Vale SA and its employees over the collapse of a mine-waste dam in January that killed hundreds of people, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing the
Iron ore prices for April 9, 2019: Spot flamed out. Paper too. Steel up. Still too early to know where next. Seasonality suggest strong for another month then down.
Iron ore prices for April 8, 2019: Spot up. Paper alight. Steel up. Coking numbers look wrong. Up she goes and where it stops nobody knows.
Iron ore prices for April 4, 2019: Spot cooled. Paper is still warm. Steel is stuck. Some are bailing on the rally, via Seeking Alpha: The prospect of reduced global supply and improved demand for iron ore in China is being misread by investors, according to Liberum Capital, which reiterates Sell ratings on BHP, Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) and
Iron ore prices for April 3, 2019: Spot wild. Paper flamed out as the contract rolled forward. Steel was up but also rolled. Via Platts: Iron ore prices may see short-term strength as a result of disruption from Tropical Cyclone Veronica in Western Australia and Vale’s expectation of reduced sales volumes this year, Barclays said
Iron ore prices for April 2, 2019: Spot jumped. Paper more. Steel too. Port stocks eased a little. If I wasn’t still a little bearish in China then we’d be going to the sky. Clyde Russell has more: The impact of the storm could be seen in Australia’s iron ore shipments in March, which dropped
Via the AFR comes FMG’s new magnetite mine: Iron Bridge would deliver a premium product with iron content of 67 per cent. About 3000 workers will be required for the construction and there will be about 900 permanent jobs once the mine is in production. The mine is expected to produce 22 million tonnes a year
Here are the latest China steel PMI numbers: March Feb. Jan. Dec. Nov. Oct. Sept. 2019 2019 2019 2018 2018 2018 2018 Index Steel Industry PMI 46.8 50.6 51.5 45.6 45.2 52.1 52.0 Output 44.7 52.2 46.8 44.6 47.6 55.7 53.6 New Orders 46.3 47.8 53.4 39.5 35.4 52.3 48.9 New Export Orders 46.2 48.7
Iron ore prices for April 1, 2019: Spot up. Paper up more overnight. Steel too. More bad news for supply: Mining giant BHP Group Ltd said on Tuesday its iron ore production would take a hit of about 6 million to 8 million tonnes as per its initial estimate after disruption and damage caused by
By Leith van Onselen The RBA has released its commodity price index for March, which fell by 0.9% in SDR (currency weighted) terms – the key determinant of the terms-of-trade – but was flat in Australian dollar terms: Preliminary estimates for March indicate that the index decreased by 0.9 per cent (on a monthly average
Iron ore prices for March 29, 2019: Spot roared. Paper less so. Steel jumped. The cause was RIO: Rio Tinto said on Friday it issued force majeure notices to some iron ore customers due to damage from tropical cyclone Veronica, which hit Western Australia earlier this week. A force majeure is invoked when a company
Iron ore prices for March 28, 2019: Spot down. All else stable. Vale has offered more details, via Platts: Brazilian miner Vale’s iron ore shipments in 2019 are set to total between 50 million mt to 75 million mt below its prior forecasts due to its recent troubles, Chief Financial Officer Luciano Siani Pires said
Iron ore prices for March 27, 2019: Spot faded. Everything else holding. Equilibrium for now.
Iron ore prices for March 26, 2019: Spot eased. Paper stable. Steel too. Port stocks rose to 148.6mt. Vale is out with its latest damage estimate, via Reuters: On Tuesday, Vale reported an 8.2 percent rise in quarterly iron ore production, bringing full-year 2018 output to 384.64 million tonnes, slightly below its annual target. In
Iron ore prices for March 25, 2019: Spot fell. Paper too. And steel. CISA output remains off its face. I’m beginning to tilt bearish here. Vale remains a rolling bullish shock but the fundamental set up is poor. There are huge piles of steel inventory sitting in China. Output is completely uninhibited by any pollution
Iron ore prices for March 24, 2019: Spot up on the Pilbara cyclone. Everything else at peace. Here’s the latest image: RIO’s Cape Lambert facilities are very close to the red zone. That’s 200mt of capacity at risk. The best case is going to lose a week’s worth of shipments which will not help Q1 GDP.
Via Domain: Australian officials are increasingly concerned that trade negotiations between China and the United States will lead to a special deal between the two countries that displaces Australia’s exports, including coal, to its biggest market. China is likely to significantly increase imports of American coal from West Virginia, Donald Trump’s electoral heartland, if it
Via The West: China could slash its iron ore imports 40 per cent as its Government winds down its stimulus of an overpriced housing sector, which would have disastrous consequences for Australian iron ore producers, a conference in Perth was told yesterday. J Capital partner and iron ore and steel analyst Tim Murray said China’s
Iron ore prices for March 21, 2019: Spot flat. Paper too. Steel up. In news, Vale signaled another small mine had failed a dam test but that has been overshadowed b the Brucutu news. In the very short term a Pilbara accident might also drive prices: Port Hedland has already cleared ships. That’s a
Iron ore prices for March 20, 2019: Spot hammered. Paper worse. Steel fine. Chinese iron ore port stock lifted to 148.2mt last week. Bloomie has more on Brucutu: Bradesco BBI, Thiago Lofiego Positive development for Vale. However, it’s still uncertain if the company can regain the provisional operating license under which it operated the Laranjeiras
Iron ore price for March 19, 2019: Spot down. Paper down more. Steel stable. The news is all good for Vale this morning, via Vertical Group: VALE SAYS COURT ALLOWED OPS TO RESUME WITH LARANJEIRAS DAM. This news is effectively 30Mmtpa that just came back on-line, unexpectedly, for Vale. This quite bad for iron ore
