News >> National News

Continuous iron ore price hikes put pressure on Chinese side in iron ore talks, analysts  
 
Recent rises of prices of spot iron ores is unfavorable to the Chinese side in negotiating with foreign iron ore suppliers, said market analysts.

Recently, price of powder iron ore (of 65.3 percent tenor) imported from India at Tianjin Port has increased to 630 yuan per ton, up nearly 20 percent from early November.

Analysts attribute the iron ore price rises to steel price hike, and recumption of production of small and midsize steel plants in China(cnmining).

Iron ore stock at China's 19 coastal ports dropped to 59.99 million tons by middle December, down 19 percent from the 74 million tons a month before.Analysts noted that the spot price rise is unfavorable to Chinese steel plants in the ongoing international iron ore supply negotiation.

The price hikes of iron ore have weakened the advantage of Chinese in the negotiations.Earlier, the Chinese side had emphasized the shrinking demand in the country, and spot prices have dropped below long-term agreement prices, base on which, it requested foreign iron ore suppliers to lower the price, at least to the level of the spot price.

However, spot price of Australian iron ores is now only 12.8 percent lower than that of the long-term agreement, a great fall from the previous price difference of 20 percent.