September 2013 BHP open the Jimblebar mine with an expected 35 million tonnes production by the end of 2015.
November 2013 Rio Tinto announced long term plans to increase it's Pilbara exports from 270 million tonnes to 360 million as part of it's Pilbara expansion.
March 2014 Fortescue opens it's 40 million tonne per annum Kings Valley iron ore mine which was part of their own Pilbara expansion.
Were these expansions created to supply the increasing world demand of steel or a simple example of game theory? The fact that the GDP growth rates in some of the worlds most important players such as the US, India and especially China has been in decline for 5 years suggests that this oversupply of iron ore was no mistake. This is big players increasing supply into the market to counter other big players so to not lose their marketshare. Unfortunately this is very likely to cause a lot of junior miners to go bankrupt and for all other miners (except the big fish with their diversified portfolios) to struggle for some time. I don't see Iron ore prices rebounding until there is a faster increase in the growths of the big economies, unti then the market is being flooded by all these new mines.
The question is how is the indian iron ore market affected by outside prices? Is there anyone that could shed light on this? Where can I find indian historical iron ore spot prices? How will this affect the quality and competitiveness of future deals for NSL? There are several articles suggesting India's iron ore imports are at record levels.
Some things to think about.
All this is imho only. Please DYOR.
PS. Gina Rinehart's Roy Hill mine will add another 55 million tonnes of ore when it starts producing by the end of 2015.
NSL Price at posting:
0.7¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
