News Room - Steel Industry

Posted on 11 Mar 2010

Iron Ore Price to Gain 60% on China, Steel Output, Goldman Says

Iron ore contract prices may surge 60 percent to a record this year as demand from China increases and steel production recovers in developed economies, Goldman Sachs JBWere Pty said.

 

The annual price for Australian fines starting April 1, a benchmark for Asia, may rise to $96 a metric ton, from $60 a ton a year earlier, Goldman analysts Malcolm Southwood and Paul Gray wrote in report dated yesterday. The analysts also raised their estimate for the so-called spot, or cash, price of the ore by 15 percent to $113 a ton for 2010, according to the report.

 

Goldman Sachs JBWere, an Australian unit of U.S. bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc., on Jan. 15 raised its forecast for contract prices to a 35 percent gain from 20 percent.

 

Goldman joins Morgan Stanley, Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in raising forecasts for iron ore prices this month after cash prices for the steelmaking raw material jumped. The seaborne trade in iron ore will increase 10 percent, a record annual gain, to 1.01 billion tons this year on growing Chinese imports, Goldman said in the report.

 

Gains in contract iron ore prices will boost profits for Brazil’s Vale SA, Rio Tinto Group and BHP Billiton Ltd., the three-biggest iron ore exporters. Goldman raised its 2010 earnings per share estimate for London-based Rio 19 percent on higher commodity prices. It raised BHP’s estimate 3.7 percent.

 

Iron ore suppliers traditionally hold annual talks with steelmakers to fix benchmark prices for the 12 months from April 1, the start of the financial year in Japan. The previous contract record was $90 a ton in 2008, Goldman said.

 

The spot price of iron ore delivered to China, the world’s biggest buyer, fell 0.6 percent to $130.60 a dry metric ton yesterday, according to The Steel Index. The spot price, which includes freight and insurance, is about 107 percent higher than the contract price for Australian ore, Goldman said.