Iron ore prices yesterday plunged to six-year lows as contagion from China’s stocks rout hurt commodity markets, with resource-heavy economies such as Australia and Brazil bearing the brunt.
The spot price of the commodity took its biggest one-day hit ever overnight, falling 10 percent to US$44.59 per tonne, analysts said, as demand in key market China continues to shrink. Prices were last at this point in May 2009.
At that level, most Australian miners would be producing at a loss, with the exception of low-cost giants like Rio Tinto PLC and BHP Billiton Ltd.
“You’ve had the perfect storm in terms of globally rising risk premiums and at the same time expectations of China’s [economic] recovery are being pushed out,” CLSA head of resources research Andrew Driscoll told reporters.
“It means all commodity markets have faced heavy selling, but particularly those markets where there’s no shortage of supply and iron ore is a good example of that,” he added.
Iron ore prices had already been declining in recent months on the back of increased supply by miners such as BHP and Rio, as well as softer growth in Chinese demand.
However, yesterday’s sharp drop in price saw the commodity record its worst trading day on record, IG Markets strategist Evan Lucas said in a note.
He added that the price of steel — of which iron ore is a key ingredient — in China was so weak it was “now cheaper per tonne than cabbage.”
While copper jumped as the US dollar slipped, oil prices were also on the slide, with US benchmark West Texas Intermediate falling on Wednesday US$0.68 to US$51.65 per barrel, in its fifth day of losses.
Many agricultural commodity prices were also weaker, including cotton and wheat.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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