Iron ore price rises on firmer steel outlook, but trade tensions cap gains
Lower Chinese steel product inventory driven by robust exports also supported iron ore prices above $100/t.
The price of iron ore climbed back to within shouting distance of the $80 a tonne level on Tuesday as optimism about demand from top consumer China continues to defy skeptics. According to data from the Steel Index the price of the steelmaking raw material is up 83% this year and has doubled since hitting near decade lows in December 2015.
Launched in 2014 (when the outlook for iron ore was very different than today) after securing the biggest ever financing package for a mining project anywhere the world according to its owners Hancock Prospecting, Roy Hill is in the final stage of ramping up to its nameplate 55 million tonnes per year capacity.
According to The West Australian, the Pilbara located mine, already Australia’s largest single mine iron ore producer, is in the process of expanding its workforce by nearly 40%:
“As we ramp up production to 55 million tonnes a year we will move further into the ore body and the strip ratio will increase and we will need to move more tonnes” [Roy Hill CEO Barry] Fitzgerald said.
“So we’ve probably got another 500-600 people to recruit as we move to full rate.”
