Sepetember 02,
Rio Tinto Group, the world’s second- biggest Iron ore supplier, said contract prices for the steelmaking commodity will probably fall 13%, the first decline in three quarters as Chinese demand weakens.
Prices will fall to around $127 a metric ton for the three months starting Oct. 1, from the previous quarter, Sam Walsh the head of the London-based company’s Iron ore business, said today. Rates almost doubled in the April quarter, and gained more than 20% in the June-to-September period.
“We are going to see ups and downs along the way and some of that clearly relates to economic circumstances and some relates to supply coming on,” Walsh told reporters at Rio’s Brockman mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Steel prices in China are under pressure to fall because of weaker demand, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., the nation’s biggest publicly traded steelmaker, said this week.
The company is boosting overall Iron ore output to 330 MT from 220 MT from its 12 mines in the Pilbara. Rio is still seeking approval from countries including China for its plan to combine its Australian Iron ore operations with BHP, the world’s third-biggest exporter.
Source: Bloomberg
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