Iron ore price, page-128

Iron ore price continues its retreat

• DANIEL PALMER
• BUSINESS SPECTATOR
• MARCH 05, 2015 8:05AM

IIRON ore is steadily making its way toward a new five-and-a-half-year low after continuing a red streak that has seen losses in seven of the last eight trading session.

At the end of the latest offshore session, benchmark iron ore for immediate delivery to the port of Tianjin in China was trading at $US62.10 a tonne, down 0.3 per cent from its previous close of $US62.30 a tonne.

The commodity is only 1.6 per cent above the five-and-a-half-year low of $US61.10 a tonne set in February and could soon move below the $US60 mark for the first time since 2009.

The weakness comes amid scepticism about the strength of Chinese demand ahead of the start of construction season later this month. Traders have shown little faith that a rate cut from Beijing will aid demand growth, sending iron ore lower in all three sessions since the People’s Bank of China made the rates move over the weekend.

Iron ore’s latest push down toward $US60 a tonne has seen traders again take a stance against local iron ore miners, with Fortescue Metals Group and BC Iron losing 5 per cent in local trade yesterday.

Atlas Iron and Mount Gibson Iron, which copped the brunt of the price falls last year, have also endured a challenging week.

Meanwhile, diversified mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton both lost ground in overnight trade despite a rising market in London, falling 2 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively.