The world's biggest bulk export port in Western Australia's Pilbara region has broken its record for the largest single shipment of iron ore.
According to the Pilbara Ports Authority, miner BHP Billiton loaded 263,989 tonnes onboard the Chinese vessel Abigail N at Port Hedland yesterday.
The shipment broke the previous record, achieved by Fortescue Metals Group in December 2013, by 27 tonnes.
Resources analyst Tim Treadgold said the record was significant for local industry.
"One, it does show that demand for iron ore in China remains strong, which is encouraging," he said.
"Two, it shows the logistics side of the iron ore business is critically important, probably more important than the price you get because you have got to be able to shift the stuff to market.
"Three, it shows that there must have been a very high tide at Port Hedland yesterday because a ship that size a few years ago would not have even considered coming in and out of the port."
Mr Treadgold said the shipment could also be continued evidence of China stockpiling the commodity while prices were at record lows.
"The Chinese certainly are enjoying being in a buyers' market, after being whacked by a sellers' market for the last four or five years," he said.
However, the record falls short of some shipments coming from Brazilian competitor, Vale.
"Vale Max super iron ore carriers are carrying more than 400,000 tonnes of iron ore," he said.
"So there is a logistics race on to get bigger, just as there is a race on to get iron ore costs smaller."
The record shipment achieved by BHP comes as the miner announced its half yearly financial results this week.
Analyst Tim Treadgold said the miner's 47 per cent drop in profits was a positive result, given the market.
"It's a very good performance in very difficult circumstances," he said.
"Management can be quite pleased with how they've ridden out the downturn, the trick now is to continue doing it."
However for smaller players in the Pilbara and Kimberley, such as Atlas Iron, BC Iron and Mt Gibson, the prognosis is not so positive.
"Smaller companies are being very badly hurt and I think management in all small iron ore producers is very tough," Mr Treadgold said.
"Atlas was forced to take a very hefty write down of its assets yesterday and actually incurred a statutory loss of around $1 billion."
Mr Treadgold said diversification might be an answer for some junior producers, such as Mineral Resources which has plans to build a sky rail in the Pilbara.
"Mineral Resources, which was originally an engineering services company, has come up with an idea to stay in the business by building a monorail or sky rail that hauls ore from the inland Pilbara," he said.
Mr Treadgold said pulling off the light-weight rail system would require at least $800 million in funds and a design that could withstand the cyclone-prone region.
Meanwhile he said some juniors may buckle under the financial pressure within the next six months.
"We have reached the point where some of the pips might pop out of the lemon," he said.
Iron ore dulls as gold glows brighter
While the mood among some in the iron ore industry may be grim, it is the opposite in gold.
Tim Treadgold said he expected spirits to be high at an explorers' conference in Perth today.
"Some of the best news in the mining industry today is not coming from yesterday's industry, which was iron ore, it's coming from tomorrow's industry which is gold," he said.
"With the Aussie dollar gold price around $1530 or $1550 an ounce - if you can't make money at that price, you really should go and buy a newsagents somewhere!"
Sourcr: ABC
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