Iron ore prices fell on Thursday to their lowest level in nearly two years on supply glut concerns as China’s steel output fell in July and Australian exports continued to surge.
Singapore iron ore futures fell 2.6% to $93.20 a tonne on the day, their lowest daily level since November 2022, before recovering some of their losses to trade at $93.30 a tonne.
This came after data from China’s statistics bureau showed the country’s steel production fell by about 9% on a monthly and annual basis in July to 82.94 million tonnes.
Total production during the first 7 months of this year reached 613.72 million tons, down 2.2% from the level of the corresponding period in 2023.
On the supply side, Australia’s Port Hedland, the country’s largest iron ore export port, reported that the volume of shipments exported from it reached 43.2 million tons in July, remaining stable on an annual basis.
