News: FMG Australia shares steady as rising miners duel falling financials; NZ lower, page-9

Sure.

The stockpile part wasn't that important, I should have left it out. The much flatter and lower cost curve is key.

The big producers were certainly forced to rein in ther costs that had ballooned during the boom years once the iron ore price crashed below $50/t. This was especially critical for FMG who can't achieve the same pricing as Rio and BHP.

But now we truly are seeing super profits with the short term unexpected iron ore price strength diverging from much reduced cost bases. Costs are not much higher than pre boom levels ..... prices are four times higher.

The margins are simply far too extreme to be maintained as a further flood of supply will be induced as the economic rent is too high - 50 years of history shows that. It's all about price reversion.

Which is why the producers, analysts, and savvy commentators are expecting it to go lower. And why the likes of Spaza get it terribly wrong extrapolating spot prices and calling that fundamentals.

In parallel, the so-called Chinese floor price to stop social unreast that some espouse was broken as a myth back in 2012 (remember the "unbreakable" $100/t floor) which is why Rio and BHP have been sombre on price outlook for some time, and even FMG is now spinning the same lines.