THE price of iron ore has given up some of its recent gains as worries about Chinese growth continue to have investors on edge.
At the end of the latest offshore session, benchmark iron ore for immediate delivery to the port of Tianjin in China was trading at $US69.70 a tonne, down 1.1 per cent from its previous close of $US70.60 a tonne, but still almost 3 per cent above the five-year low of $US68 reached last week.
The dip ended a run of three straight positive trading days and came amid another dark day for commodities in general, as oil, gold and copper prices all fell over 1 per cent.
The weakness came after a sector-wide rally yesterday as bargain-hunters stepped in on the back of heavy recent falls.
For iron ore it is a return to a downtrend seen since February as the commodity has given up just shy of 50 per cent on the year amid supply increases and demand softness.
The price collapse has caused the whole sector to take a closer look at cost-cutting measures, though Rio Tinto iron ore boss Andrew Harding said overnight that his firm is not in a fight with rival BHP Billiton to break new ground on production costs.
“I’m not in a race with BHP [Billiton] at all,” Mr Harding said. “We’re the lowest-cost producer in the marketplace. What we’re looking at is maximising the value of the business.”
Both Rio and BHP saw positive trading sessions offshore, with their London-listed stock climbing 0.7 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively.
Source: The Australian
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