From the Australian Financial Review: ‘Everyone is nervous’ about iron ore, says Vale
Gated but main points:
- Brazilian mining giant Vale has admitted it is nervous about the plunge in iron ore prices below $US80a tonne as the Chinese government dampens hopes of aggressive policy stimulus to fuel growth
- Benchmark iron ore price for immediate delivery at the port of Tianjin in China slid 2.3 per cent to $US79.80 a tonne on Monday , the lowest price since September 17, 2009, following a 1.6 per cent fall to $US81.70 on Frida
- The sharp falls came after a short-lived rally last week that led the commodity’s price higher to moret han $US85 a tonne.
Vale’s director of strategic planning Stephen Potter:
- “Everyone is nervous about the iron ore price at the moment; are we shifting from heavy industrial (phase) to a consumer-led industrial (phase) in some classical economics professor’s views on development, and does that mean China is going to be using less iron ore? Well these are always the challengesfor a mining company to decide which commodities it needs to invest in”
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