Iron Ore Prices, page-2

Iron ore jumps past $US62 mark

• DANIEL PALMER
• 1 HOUR AGO

• ECONOMY
• COMMODITIES
• MARKETS

The price of iron ore has again moved beyond $US62 a tonne as investors welcome steady data out of China and Anglo American talks up demand from India.
At the end of the latest session, benchmark iron ore for immediate delivery to the port of Tianjin in China was trading at $US62.10 a tonne, up 1.1 per cent from its prior close of $US61.40 a tonne.
After breaking a two-session losing streak the commodity is just US50c off the near three-month high it set last week and 33 per cent above the 10-year low of $US46.70 it reached in early April.
The price has been recovering on falling stockpiles at Chinese ports and a view the late-March, early-April sell-off may have been an overreaction to a broadly pessimistic view of the future supply-demand outlook.
Helping market sentiment has been steady data out of China as factory activity numbers, released Monday as iron ore markets remained closed, were shown to be improving, while house prices were shown to be climbing in data released Tuesday.


China is the world's largest iron ore consumer and the demand outlook in the region is key to the commodity's price given the wave of supply expected to hit the market over the coming 12-24 months.
While China is the key to the market in the near-term, miners are hopeful India is the sleeping giant as it presses ahead with an urbanisation drive.
The major miners have spruiked the potential of the Indian market, with Anglo American overnight detailing the potential in declaring its sales to the country have tripled in the past year.
Anglo, the world's fifth largest ore producer, now directs 15 per cent of its iron ore production to India.
Meanwhile, BHP Billiton's iron ore boss, Jimmy Wilson, has launched another stern defence of the miner in the face of continued criticism from the likes of Fortescue Metals over its production plans.
"BHP is not oversupplying or flooding the market," he said in an op-ed for The Australian.
"Our strategy to increase production through productivity remains commercial, rational and consistent."