The price of iron ore has finally rallied after a three week run of losses that dragged it below the psychologically important $US50 a tonne mark.
At the end of the latest session, benchmark iron ore for immediate delivery to the port of Tianjin in China was trading at $US49.50 a tonne, up 1 per cent from its prior close of $US49.50 a tonne.
The long streak of red sessions was driven by talk of resilient supply in the face of growing signs of lacklustre demand.
Last week a number of analysts tipped further falls for the commodity after the Chinese steel sector said bullish mining industry forecasts for steel demand may be misplaced.
“We now expect a slow but steady declining trend in import volumes through the end of the decade,” Macquarie said in a note to clients. “On our modelling, China doesn’t ever reach that 1-billion-tonne mark long expected by major producers.”
While the commodity managed to bounce back on Friday, disappointing manufacturing data out of Beijing on Sunday further clouds the soft demand outlook and may put the stops on any potential rebound this week.
Source: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/