Sierra Leone woos miners to clean energy with $11 billion plan
Most mining firms rely on their own diesel supplies to extract iron ore, diamonds, rutile and bauxite in the resource-rich country.
The import price of 62% Fe content ore at the port of Tianjin dropped 2.8% to $77.10 per dry metric tonne on Wednesday, the lowest since the end of November according to data supplied by The Steel Index.
Year to date the price of the steelmaking raw material is still up nearly 80% following near-decade lows in December last year, but the outlook going into 2017 is decidedly murkier.
Source: The Steel Index
Dutch bank ABN Amro is the most optimistic calling for a $77 average next year while BMO Capital Markets see prices falling sharply from today’s levels to average $46 over the course of 2017. Most analysts see iron ore between $50–$60 next year which is on par with the commodity’s year to date average.
Goldman Sachs predicting above $60 in early 2017, with a moderate decline to $55 a tonne by the end of next year. That’s the same price Australia’s Industry department is predicting for free-on-board prices by September next year (add around $6 for freight costs).
Iron ore price expectations on derivatives markets are much more optimistic reaching year-to-date highs last week according to a recent note from the Singapore Exchange:
With iron ore spot prices surging in recent weeks, optimism has extended to forward price expectations too. 2017 forward price expectations have risen to their highest level of the year, with the SGX Iron Ore forward curve currently pricing 2017 at around $70 per tonne (~25% higher than 2016’s YTD average of $56/t).
