Those that you refer to are in-between traders which neither China nor Australia like or want The fundamentals are that China is now consuming record levels of Iron Ore & Coal.
If Chinese growth drops below 7%, the Chinese Government will likely use stimuli, IMO, which will mostly consist of increased infrastructure spending; all good for Iron Ore & Coal.
Alternatively, if the Chinese economy continues to grow at 7%+ then our Iron Ore & Coal producers will have no worries.
Our principal worry is that Uncle Sam may chuck a trade embargo on China which would bankrupt us.
China tries to control prices by stockpiling comming up to the quarterly contract price fix and this simply causes volatility but, IMO, the long term demand increase will draw higher prices until Africa gets its act together as a consistent alternative supplier. Cheers Moorookamick