Brazilian iron ore miner MMX Mineracao e Metalicos SA sees iron ore spot prices remaining firm at as high as USD 200 a tonne delivered to China in the short term.
Mr Roger Downey CEO of MMX told analysts that "In the short to mid term we will see prices of USD 170 per tonne to USD 200 per tonne CIF China.”
According to Mr Downey, as new mine capacity is coming onto the market only slowly and expansions are turning out more expensive than anticipated, the trend will be for prices to remain high.
Mr Downey said that "The industry suffered from capital asphyxiation during the crisis explaining why some companies are now years behind with their plans to bring new capacity to the market.”
Mr Downey said that "The supply side is becoming even more critical. We will have a lot of high cost ore on the market for the next decade adding that in the long term prices may hover around USD 130 a tonne delivered to China or USD 100 a tonne FOB at the point of origin, before shipping costs.”
Mr Downey indicating that this should further spur demand for the steelmaking raw material said that "We're moving into an era of massive economic growth worldwide: We could see global economic growth really start to pick up from 2014-2015.”
( Source: www.steelguru.com )