Steel Industry Clean Up Not Likely to Impact Iron Ore Demand

Mining Weekly reported on Friday that according to Wood Mackenzie, China’s efforts to make its steel industry more environmentally friendly are not likely to have a short-term impact on iron ore demand.

As quoted in the market news:

‘The iron-ore market is understandably spooked by what’s going on in China due to the introduction of the environmental controls and their potential financial impact on the steel industry. This has sparked much uncertainty and speculation,’ said Wood Mackenzie’s principal iron-ore markets analyst, Paul Gray.

‘This is one factor that has caused price volatility, with prices plunging to 17-month lows in recent weeks before picking up again very recently. However, during the remainder of 2014, we expect that fighting emissions will have negligible impact on total Chinese crude steel production and limited impact on iron-ore demand in terms of quantity, with Chinese imports of iron-ore predicted to rise by a further 90-million tonnes in 2014 to a record 921-million tonnes.’

Click here to read the full Mining Weekly report.