China’s premier Li Keqiang and Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull sign port and railway deal opening up vast new iron ore resources.
Worries about the longer term supply picture for the iron ore market resurfaced on Friday after the announcement of a high-profile infrastructure deal between China and Australia.
The Northern China import price of 62% Fe content ore fell again on Friday to trade at $84.40 per dry metric tonne, capping a terrible week that saw the price of steelmaking raw material slide 8.6% according to data supplied by The Steel Index.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang signed a deal in Canberra on Friday which will see China’s state-owned infrastructure company spend A$6 billion
(US$4.6 billion) to build a port at Balla Balla in the nortwest of the country and a 160km railway to a new mine to be constructed in the heart of the Pilbara region.
The project which already has environmental approval and is being advanced by Flinders Mines, controlled by New Zealand conglomerate Todd, will see the construction of a 6m–10m tonnes per year mine starting as early as next year.
