Iron Ore Bargain-Hunting by China Wins Reprieve for Shipping
Steel pipes are loaded onto a truck at a storage yard in Shanghai.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The bear market in iron ore is sending Chinese steel mills on a bargain hunt and giving shipping companies their best rates this year. Analysts and brokers are already warning the good times won’t last.
The acceleration in bookings of Capesizes, 960-foot-long vessels that dominate the ore trade, pushed daily rates to the most since November this month. They are mainly headed to China, which added 3 million metric tons of imported ore to stockpiles at ports in July, the biggest expansion since May 2014.