Article – Record iron ore export out of Port Hedland

29 April 2014
Vicky Validakis
Australian Mining
Two million tonnes of iron ore has been exported out of Port Hedland in 24 hours for the first time.
The milestone was achieved on the morning and evening tide on 28 April 2014, resulting in a total of 2,028,105 tonnes exported.
As a result, the port managed 24 vessel movements in the 24 hour period.
It is understood iron ore production capacity expansions from the port’s major users, BHP Billiton, and in particular, Fortescue Metals Group is behind the increased export volumes.
The month of April also saw a new record achieved for the largest amount of product exported on a single tide, with 1,111,109 tonnes on 6 April 2014.
However it’s not all good news for Australia’s best-known commodity.
Iron ore prices took another slide overnight, down 2.3 per cent to US$108.60.
As a result, iron ore miner shares were down in early trade with BC Iron losing 3.3 per cent, FMG down 2.5 per cent and Mount Gibson Iron Limited also down 2.5 per cent.
As always, the major diversified players were more sheltered with Rio Tinto down 1.1 per cent and BHP 0.7 per cent.
The skittish reaction to the iron ore spot price fall comes amid mounting speculation a flood of oversupply will come online, coupled with credit worries out of China.
Reuters reports China’s banking regulator has urged local authorities and banks to step up investigations into iron ore financing deals in a bid to minimise default risks.
This raised fears that commodities-backed financing will halt and cause an oversupply as ore is sold from ever-growing stockpiles of over 100 million tonnes.
“If traders are unable to get more financing, they may sharply cut prices on the inventory they hold to obtain cash, and that will cause ore price to plummet,” Ren Xinlei, an analyst at Luzheng Futures told Bloomberg.
Courtesy of Australian Mining