Australia will lose share over the next five years in the global iron ore market to Brazil because of the latter’s high grade iron ore reserves and exports, according to a new report on the mineral from Fitch Ratings’ offshoot, Fitch Solutions.
The loss won’t be much in percentage terms, but in terms of tonnage, Brazil’s production is projected to grow at four times the rate of growth forecast for Australia.
The Fitch report, which appeared earlier this week, says global iron ore mine output growth will average 2.4% over 2021-2025 compared to the fall of 2.0% over the previous five years (which has helped boost prices as it met the surge in demand for steel in China from 2019 onwards and especially in the past year).