The world’s largest iron ore exporter has delivered a mixed message on its outlook, raising near-term price forecasts, but combining that revision with a more somber message that China’s gargantuan imports are set to level off as steel production eases in the coming years.
Iron ore would average US$61.80 a tonne this year and US$51.10 in 2019, the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation and Science said in a quarterly report yesterday.
That compares with forecasts of US$52.60 and US$48.80 in the department’s previous outlook.
Prices are “expected to moderate, to better reflect the fundamentals of growing low-cost supply from Brazil and moderating demand in China,” the department said, predicting rising global volumes this year as well as next, driven by new mines, including Vale SA’s giant S11D project in Brazil.
Steel production in China would drop each year through to 2023, while iron ore shipments from Australia and Brazil would rise before leveling off, it forecast.
Iron ore received a battering last month, collapsing into a bear market as investors fretted about weaker-than-expected springtime demand in top user China, record holdings accumulated in its ports, and jitters about global growth as the US and China swapped barbs on trade.
Barclays PLC is among banks that have flagged the risk of a further weakening of prices this quarter, highlighting the potential for a switch away from higher-content ores, which have seen strong demand as Beijing acts to battle pollution.
“Iron ore import demand is expected to be weighed down by declining steel production in China,” the department said. “The main drivers of declining steel production are slowing construction activity and infrastructure investment, and increasingly stringent environmental regulations.”
The spot price for iron ore with 62 percent content in northern China was at US$63.35 a dry tonne on Wednesday last week, according to Mysteel.com.
That compared with US$73.50 at the end of last year and this year’s peak of almost US$80 in late February.
So far this year, the raw material has averaged about US$73 a tonne.
Among the department’s forecasts, China’s iron ore imports are forecast to ease from 1.08 billion tonnes this year to 1.04 billion in 2023.
At the same time, nationwide steel output would fall from 832 million tonnes this year to 805 million in 2023, while local steel usage would contract from 772 million tonnes to 742 million.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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