Iron ore prices may decline to $60 on weak Chinese demand, says JSW Steel

International News

JSW Steel Ltd., India’s most valuable steel producer, is predicting declines for iron ore next year as demand from biggest consumer China eases and supplies recover.
Prices may trade between $80 and $85 a ton for the rest of 2019 before sliding to $60 to $65 next year, Seshagiri Rao, joint managing director of the Mumbai-based mill, said. The key steel-making raw material has benefited from “speculation” and there is no reason why ore should be trading at elevated levels of about $95, he said.
“Gradually we are seeing some moderation” in steel production globally and “once the crude steel production comes down, including in China, then automatically the demand for raw material should come down,” he said in an interview Thursday. “Whatever disruptions we have seen in supplies are slowly, gradually normalizing.”
Iron ore has had a volatile year. It surged in the first half, triggered by supply disruptions in Brazil and Australia, and plunged in August as output recovered and global growth slowed. It is staging a revival this month, pushing back toward $100 a ton, on speculation that Chinese demand is holding up and there may be more mainland stimulus in the works.
Iron ore prices are moving in a completely different direction to other materials such as scrap, coking and thermal coal, and electrodes, which are declining and are more reflective of ebbing demand from the steel industry at present, Rao said.

 JSW imported between 6 million and 8 million tons of iron ore in the year ended April, he said. That works out to about as much as two-thirds of India’s total iron ore imports, which jumped 47 per cent to 12.8 million tons last year...Read More

Change or suffer consequences: Trump dares China with trade tariffs

International News

By threatening to raise taxes on Chinese imports, President Donald Trump is throwing down a challenge to Beijing: Agree to sweeping changes in China's government-dominated economic model or suffer the consequences.
The unexpected ultimatum, delivered via tweets on Sunday and Monday, shook up financial markets that had expected the world's two biggest economies to resolve a year-long standoff over trade, perhaps by the end of the week.
"It's a significant change in the president's tone," said Timothy Keeler, a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown and former chief of staff for the US Trade Representative.
"It certainly increases the possibility that you'll have no deal."
For weeks, Trump administration officials had been suggesting that the US and Chinese negotiators were making steady progress. A Chinese delegation is due to resume talks Wednesday in Washington.
Suddenly on Sunday, Trump said he had lost patience: "The Trade Deal with China continues, but too slowly, as they attempt to renegotiate. No!" he tweeted.And he said he planned "shortly" to slap 25 per cent tariffs on another $325 billion in Chinese products, covering everything China ships to the United States.

 Michael Pillsbury, director of the Hudson Institute's Center on Chinese Strategy and an adviser to the Trump White House, said the president's tweets suggest frustration that Chinese leaders "are trying to take back concessions they already made."The two countries are engaged in high-stakes commercial combat over China's aggressive push to establish Chinese companies as world leaders in cutting-edge fields such as robotics and electric vehicles.

Trump's tariff threat provokes China to delay next round of trade talks

International News

China is considering delaying a trip by its top trade negotiators to Washington this week, according to people familiar with the matter, after US President Donald Trump threatened the country with steeper tariffs over the pace of trade talks.

Trump on Sunday raised pressure on Beijing to strike a trade deal by announcing he would increase tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports to 25 per cent from 10 per cent on Friday. He also floated the possibility of extending a new 25 per cent duty on another $325 billion in imports that aren’t now covered.

“Risks of a full blown trade war are escalating,” said Chua Hak Bin, a senior economist at Maybank Kim Eng Research Pte. in Singapore. “Trump’s threat may backfire as China will not want to negotiate with a gun pointing at their heads.”

China’s yuan plunged the most in more than three years and its equity markets were roiled as markets unwound bets on a resolution to a trade war that’s weighed on global commerce and forced companies to rethink supply chains. The Aussie dollar fell while the yen climbed.
Lengthy Talks

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He was scheduled to arrive in Washington on Wednesday with a delegation of about 100 people for what had been shaping up to be possibly the final round of negotiations. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin visited Beijing last week for talks they described as productive.


 The US had been targeting May 10 to announce a deal, that would be finalized and signed by Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later at an official summit, people familiar with the negotiations said last week.