On Monday, October 18, many Chinese steelmakers revealed that they have received the latest import offers for iron ore from the ‘big three' global iron ore mining giants - Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton Ltd. and Vale. Accordingly, iron ore offer price levels from these three miners have decreased by 10 percent since the start of October. Most market insiders attribute this price decline to the contraction in demand for iron ore in China.
According to the latest data released by the Chinese customs authorities, China's iron ore import volume totaled 0.46 billion mt in the first three quarters of this year, down 2.5 percent compared to the corresponding period of 2009. The average price of imported iron ore in this period was around $121.7/mt, up 56.4 percent year on year.