Iron ore price in China sees a further drop

The Ministry of Industry, the State Council Development Research Centre and industry experts predict that an oversupply of iron ore will cause a continual drop in prices. Although this is so, The Vice President of China Steel Industry Association, Wang Qi, felt that the price volatility will be much less than last year. In the first quarter, the national sees a growth rate drop of 2.8%, mainly due to the fall in demand for automotive, cement, machinery and electronic products. The number of steel producers in China have increased greatly over the years, causing vicious competition and the need to cut prices. The booming growth in iron ore a few years ago has attracted many traders to jump onto the bandwagon to earn the extra cash. The only apparent way to resolve the oversupply is for non-competitive enterprises to exit the industry, and to accelerate the technology development process to produce low cost and high quality steel products and services.

This is an abstract from MySteel’s article ‘今年铁矿石价格总体将波动走低’. MySteel is a professional steel website dedicated to providing a realtime news portal to China’s steel market, one of the fastest-growing markets in the world. If you want to subscribe to MySteel’s information and updates on steel prices and news, you can email to plinyshi@yeah.net or call +86 21 2609 3879.

If you are keen to meet Chinese scrap metal buyers and sellers, don’t forget to join us at World Scrap Metal Congress! Download the 2012 agenda here.