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Spot iron ore slips $1 to $148-149

September 08, 2010 - 13:39 GMT Location: Shanghai

Spot prices for 63.5% Fe fines fell again on Wednesday by $1 to $148-149 per tonne on weak demand caused by steel shutdowns in China.

Concensus is building that prices could fall further, especially because the closure of some capacity comes at a time when steel demand is anyway not great. “Rsing steel product prices are not supported by [demand], and this can't move the iron ore price. Real estate, for instance, is flat due to government controls," said a Shandong-based trader. An industry source told MB that one large-scale iron ore trader bought...

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Iron Ore & Coking Coal

May 22, 2012 14:11 Labrador Iron Mines sells 170,000 tonnes to China at $126/t
May 22, 2012 08:47 Spot 63.5% Fe iron ore prices rest at $138-139 cfr
May 22, 2012 08:23 Attila looks for coking coal in USA
May 22, 2012 06:26 Vale plans second Asian iron ore transfer station
May 22, 2012 04:58 FACTS: China’s steel raw material imports mixed in April

Comment & analysis

COMMENT: When super-cycle poster child BHP Billiton trims its plans...

BHP Billiton is one of the poster children for the commodities super-cycle: a mining company whose immense upstream assets in copper and iron ore have fed the industrialisation of China since the early years of the 21st century and enabled it to return $52 billion to shareholders between 2001 and 2011.
LORD COPPER: There is nothing to fear after JP Morgan loss ...

So, here we go again. Another bank, another huge trade gone bad. This one doesn’t even appear to have been a case of rogue trading; a whole desk seems to have been operating with the full knowledge of the management and/or risk committee.
COMMENT: Keep calm and carry on?

The decision of the Indonesian government last week to uphold the ore export ban and taxes from May 6 has failed to calm the nervous market. So far, both producers and buyers have displayed an impressive tolerance level to the export uncertainty. But how long will their patience last?