Steel-output cuts boosting product prices as inventories slump...

• Steel-output cuts boosting product prices as inventories slump
• Citi flags further gains for iron ore in first quarter of 2018

Iron ore has rallied back into a bull market. Prices are surging as China’s crackdown on steel output this winter runs down inventories, helping mills’ profitability and stoking demand for high-grade ore even as investors discount signs of ample supply.

Spot ore with 62 percent iron content jumped 3.7 percent to $72.68 a metric ton, the highest since Sept. 14, according to Metal Bulletin Ltd. That’s more than 20 percent up from the low hit in late October, meeting the common bull-market definition. Earlier, on Monday, futures in Asia rallied, with the SGX AsiaClear prices rising 2.9 percent to $71.29 a ton.

Iron ore’s gains -- which will aid miners including Rio Tinto Group, BHP Billiton Ltd. and Vale SA -- are buttressed by China’s unprecedented push to rein in steel output this winter to cut pollution. While that initiative may result in less steel being made in the world’s top producer, lowering overall ore demand for several months, it’s also supercharged prices as inventories collapse. Citigroup Inc. has singled out iron ore’s bullish prospects in the first quarter of 2018, raising price forecasts for both next year as well as for 2019.

The question we should all be asking ourselves is WILL THE MASSIVE RESTRICTIONS PLACED ON STEEL PRODUCERS OVER A 4 MONTH PERIOD CAUSE A MASSIVE BACKLOG OF ORDERS ON STEEL that will not only further increase the price running up to march, but also hold those higher prices well into 2018 as steel mills try to clear the massive backlog ?????????

World markets all appear to be strengthening at the same time - is it possible that with stronger demand a massive backlog of orders , and India's infrastructure spending increases that this could cause a ' perfect storm " effect that could catapult steel/iron ore prices over a much longer period than anyone could magine ?????????????????????????

LIFES GOOD SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE RIDE -)