Demand for high-grade material fuelled by strong profit China ex-Hebei province March pig iron production up
BEIJING, April 26 (Reuters) - Top-grade iron ore with 65% iron content is selling at a record spread over ores with 62% and 58% ferrous content, while the spread between benchmark 62% ore and lower-grade 58% ore has risen to a four-year high.
High-grade 65% iron ore currently costs $66.50 per tonne more than 58% iron ore and $33.50 more than 62% ore, according to data from SteelHome, but is still attractive for mills as their profit margins have risen this year.
“Steel companies are chasing higher production now as they are profitable,” said a Shandong-based trader who refused to be named. “Demand for low-grade ores is not very good, we are not keen to take those products.”
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BEIJING, April 16 (Reuters) - Chinese coking coal futures surged more than 5% on Friday and were on course for a 6.7% weekly gain, on supply concerns as some major coal producing regions have ramped up safety inspections.
Authorities in provinces and region including Shanxi, Henan and Inner Mongolia have recently stepped up inspection at coal mines following several accidents in the past few months and ordered those with risks to halt production for rectification.
Meanwhile, data from China’s National Statistics Bureau showed that overall coal production in March dipped 0.2% from the same month a year earlier to 340.76 million tonnes.
Under fire after a string of high-profile disasters, mining firms are shaking up their boardrooms in response to criticism that they are failing to meet their own environmental, social, and governance standards.
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SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Miners will think twice before splashing out on major new projects even as copper prices have soared to decade-long highs this year, the CEO of Chile´s Antofagasta told Reuters.
FILE PHOTO: Ivan Arriagada, chief executive officer of Chilean miner Antofagasta Minerals Plc, attends an interview with Reuters in Santiago, Chile October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Pablo Sanhueza/File Photo
Prices have surged in recent weeks amid expectations of a global economic recovery, sparking talk of a new investment cycle in the sprawling worldwide copper industry.
But Antofagasta CEO Iván Arriagada said many miners had learned the lessons of the previous “supercycle” of high prices, driven by the growth of the Chinese economy, in which bold but only marginally profitable investments were punished when prices plunged later in the decade.