CHARTS: The coming critical minerals trade war is BRICS short of a load
"While a large number of countries around the world continue to talk about securing raw material supply, China is actually doing something about it."
The rally in the price of iron ore went into insane mode on Monday with the Northern China benchmark import price surging nearly 20% in a single day.
The steelmaking raw material was trading at $62.60 per dry metric tonne CFR Tianjin port on Monday, up $10.2o compared to Friday according to data supplied by The Steel Index as Chinese mills scrambled to purchase material on bumper gains in steel prices over the weekend.
Today’s jump is roughly half of the price of contracted iron ore during the early 2000s under the old annual benchmark system
The information service points out that today’s absolute day-on-day rise “is roughly half of the price of contracted iron ore during the early 2000’s under the old ‘annual benchmark’ system, which ended in April 2010.”
Iron ore is now up 46% since the start of the year and an astonishing 69% above multi-year lows of $37 a tonne hit less than three months ago.
Supply disruptions in Australia due to bad weather and restocking following the Chinese lunar new year buoyed the market and helped iron ore outperform steel prices by a wide margin in February, but Shanghai rebar has since caught up rising 19% from a 13-year low struck in November.
Demand and prices across the ferrous complex including both ore and coking coal have been rising fast, led by the domestic Chinese recovery says Oscar Tarneberg, TSI’s Senior Iron Ore Analyst:
“Rising profitability and optimism over seasonal demand has seen confidence return to the iron ore market in recent months.
“News of capacity closures over the weekend and ensuing gains in steel prices added fuel to the fire.”
TSI’s benchmark FOB Australia premium coking coal price hit a five month high of $81 a tonne on Monday a double digit gains since bottoming November 23 at $73.40 a tonne.
Source: The Steel Index
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Rio Tinto plc shot up 5.5% with the iron ore news and today’s announcement confirming the rumors of the new ultra high speed data system.