And while we’re on the subject of China we should relay that Citic Pacific Ltd, which is an arm of China’s largest state-owned company, is set to spend more on magnetite iron ore projects in Australia. Magnetite is a lower grade ore than the hematite ores that BHP and Rio have all but locked up in the Pilbara.
November 26th, 2009 | Dan Denning | 2 comments | ContinuedAll Posts Tagged With: "Pilbara"
China Has Stopped Stockpiling Metals
There are several components of demand. There’s real economic demand (you need the stuff to make other stuff). There is investment demand (you’re buying it in order to make a profit from what you think the price trend is. There is also pure speculation, and it’s possible that some middle-men were flat-out speculating by buying alongside China’s State Reserve Bureau (sort of like the banks and brokers in the U.S. buying Treasuries ahead of the Fed late last year to improve Q4 earnings).
July 1st, 2009 | Dan Denning | 1 comment | Continued


