Iron ore faced some downward pressure in the third week of December, with benchmark spot prices retreating from a seven-year high of $157 per tonne after China's largest steel producers asked for a regulatory probe into skyrocketing prices. The raw ingredient is up 70% this year due to strong demand from China which has initiated a massive infrastructure stimulus to support the post-pandemic recovery and worries about supply from Brazil and Australia. Brazilian miner Vale, the biggest in the world, is struggling to return to full production capacity after a deadly dam collapse last year and expects to produce 300m to 305m tonnes this year, below a previously lowered target of at least 310m tonnes. At the same time, short-term disruptions caused by storms hitting Australia also tightened iron ore supply.
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Historically, Iron Ore reached an all time high of 200 in November of 2007. Iron Ore - data, forecasts, historical chart - was last updated on December of 2020.
Iron Ore is expected to trade at 154.38 USD/MT by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate it to trade at 134.84 in 12 months time.