To: LoneClone who wrote (111407 ) 3/20/2015 6:59:35 PM From: LoneClone Read Replies (1) | Respond to China slowdown pushes coal, iron-ore to fresh lows Reuters miningweekly.com SINGAPORE – Key Asian mining markets are being thrown into crisis by China 's slowdown and industrial reforms, with coal and iron-ore prices falling this week to levels last seen before the global financial crisis.coal settled below $60/t on Thursday, the lowest price since before 2008/9. Prices of iron-ore exports to China are also at pre-crisis lows of less than $55/t. Iron-ore and coal have slumped 70% and 60%, respectively, since a 2011 peak, when severe floods shut down mines in Australia and the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan pushed up global energy prices.BHP Billiton , Rio Tinto , Glencore , Vale and Fortescue . iron-ore specialist Fortescue , which is heavily exposed to China , scrapped a $2.5-billion bond sale this week after investors balked at the offer. Its share price has fallen almost 70% in the last year.China relies on coal for almost 70% of its energy needs and it is also the world's biggest steel maker, for which iron-ore is a key ingredient. Yet its steel demand is falling as harsher environmental inspections and the slowest economic growth in 25 years force steel mills to cut output. Its coal demand fell last year for the first time in decades as the government gets tough in its declared "war on pollution".Marex Spectron said China 's current industrial overcapacity is a hangover of the government-directed stimulus during the 2008/9 crisis. Barclays said the outlook will remain weak as Beijing engineers an economic transition to a less investment-driven, more consumer-led economy: "The consensus view is that this will lead to a slowing of demand for almost all commodities."
