China’s Green Future Is Great for High-Grade Iron Ore Price

China’s Green Future Is Great for High-Grade Iron Ore Price
Härje RonngardDecember 20, 2017


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Pollution is a huge problem in China. And it’s got nothing to do with some distant global warming prediction.
In China, pollution kills. According to Berkeley Earth, smog in Beijing was so bad that breathing for a day was as unhealthy as smoking 40 cigarettes.

Source: Inverse Science​

Reported by The Guardian:
‘Air pollution is killing about 4,000 people in China a day, accounting for one in six premature deaths in the world’s most populous country, a new study finds.
‘Physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, calculated about 1.6 million people in China die each year from heart, lung and stroke problems because of incredibly polluted air, especially small particles of haze. Earlier studies put the annual Chinese air pollution death toll at one to two million but this is the first to use newly released air monitoring figures.’

China’s cleaning up their act​

That’s why China’s government has been trying to clean up their act. They limit the amount of cars in busy cities. They’re one of the biggest investors in green energies. And now the government expects the steel industry to buy higher-grade iron ore.
As reported by Bloomberg:
‘Iron ore’s on the rise as an environmental clean-up in China tightens the supply of higher-grade material that’s less polluting and allows steelmakers to maximize production.
‘…The commodity has rebounded since the start of November. While China’s bid to curb pollution by cutting steel supply this winter is hurting overall consumption of ore, it’s supporting demand for higher-quality material because the variety is more efficient to use. Demand for ore could also expand next year as rising profits encourage steel mills to increase production and furnaces in the top supplier ramp up after the end of winter curbs.’

Iron ore price predictions​

According to Bloomberg, 2020 iron ore futures contracts trade around US$60 a tonne. And analysts are predicting the price of iron ore might fall to US$56 a tonne by 2020.

Source: Bloomberg​

Will iron ore rise for now, but fall in the long term? Maybe. It’s extremely hard to predict the price of commodities, especially one as volatile as iron ore.
But if China continues to demand more steel and build more things, the price of iron ore should either remain stable or rise in the long term.
Regards,
Härje Ronngard,
Junior Analyst, Markets & Money

https://www.marketsandmoney.com.au/chinas-green-future-great-high-grade-iron-ore-price/2017/12/20/

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