Where to go to dig up the facts about iron ore

by Jessica Wagner on September 25, 2008

in Books & Resources,Data,Raw Materials

There has been a lot of news lately about how the largest iron ore producers want to change the traditional yearly contract negotiations with their biggest customers.  If you are trying to follow what’s going on and you need some background on the iron ore market and history, you can get some answers online through the sources below.  All the sources are free except the subscription pricing data described at the end of the post.

Who are the biggest iron ore producers?

USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) publishes the Mineral Commodity Summary on iron ore which lists the output of the largest producing countries and their reserves.  I have already mentioned the publications of the Raw Materials Group and UNCTAD in an earlier post, but RMG also have a good summary of the largest producing companies (as well as a general view of what’s going on) in the abstract describing their report The Iron Ore Market 2007-2009.

How much seaborne trade in iron ore is there?

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) has a quarterly report called Australian Commodities where it lists the largest importing and exporting countries, describes the current pricing issues, and gives market and pricing forecasts.  Metallurgical coal is also discussed in that document, for those who are interested.

What are historical and current iron ore contract and spot prices?

You can download two spreadsheets with pricing information from the Vale website, one with reference prices for iron ore and pellets, the other with average realized prices for iron ore 2003-2007 and for 2008 Q1 and Q2.  EconStats also gives some historical contract and spot prices on their Price of Iron Ore page, together with some general information such as definitions of different forms of ore and lists of largest producers and consumers.

In addition, the following are sites supplying iron ore pricing subscriptions for a fee.  SteelGuru has iron ore spot prices in China and India, which is gets from CCCMC (China Chamber of Commerce of Metals Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters), see links to those pages on the SteelGuru About page.  Steel Business Briefing publishes a Chinese domestic price and a Chinese import price from India.  They have also started reporting Deutsche Bank iron ore futures prices, and I understand they will add Credit Suisse iron ore futures prices very soon.