铁矿石价格跌至5年低点

铁矿石价格最近已经触及5年低点，至每吨80美元。但这一规模巨大的供应浪潮并非令铁矿石价格承压的唯一因素，有关中国需求放缓的担忧也是一大因素。中国是全球最大炼钢国和海运铁矿石消费国。
此际，嘉能可(Glencore)正与力拓(Rio Tinto)就两家公司可能的合并进行讨论。
高盛(Goldman Sachs)分析师表示，铁矿石行业利润率长期高于趋势水平的状况已告结束，原因在于大型生产商向新的低成本产能投入了数十亿美元资金。
尽管铁矿石价格下滑，但三大铁矿石生产商——必和必拓(BHP Billiton)、力拓(Rio)和巴西淡水河谷(Vale)并不计划改变其提高产量的战略，不过一些主要股东正对是否应给本已供应过度的市场增加更多产能提出质疑。
作为低成本铁矿石生产商，必和必拓及其竞争对手正押注于铁矿石价格将企稳，同时市场将再度平衡，因为支出更高的较小规模矿商已变得不具竞争力，并被迫限产。
必和必拓本周表示，即便是在目前的价格上，澳大利亚的业务扩张也会给股东回报。
该公司表示，提高产量的战略是合理的，因为这将充分利用其在西澳皮巴拉地区铁矿石矿区的投资。过去5年，该公司已在该地区投资220亿美元。
The price of benchmark iron ore for delivery into China has fallen by more than 40 per cent this year as a wave of new supply, mainly from mines in Australia, has hit the market.
However, the supply tsunami is not the only factor weighing on iron ore, which recently hit a five-year low and is now trading at $80 a tonne. Concerns about a slowdown in demand from China, the world’s biggest steelmaker and consumer of seaborne iron ore, have also taken hold.
It is against this backdro that Glencore sounded out Rio Tinto about a potential merger of the two companies.
Goldman Sachs analysts say the iron ore industry’s long period of above-trend profitability has come to an end, destroyed by the billions of dollars that large producers have ploughed into new, low-cost capacity.
In spite of the price slump, the big three iron ore producers – BHP Billiton, Rio and Vale – have no plans to change their strategies to increase production, even though some leading shareholders are questioning whether they should be adding more tonnes to an oversupplied market.
As low cost producers, BHP and its rivals are betting prices will stabilise and the market rebalance as smaller miners with higher overheads become uncompetitive and are forced to curtail production.
BHP said this week that an expansion of its Australian operations would reward shareholders even at current prices.
It said raising output was the right strategy to make the most of its investment – $22bn in the past five years – in iron ore mines in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.