Metal Bulletin Iron Ore Index- Daily Market

Thursday, 23 August 2012

62% Fe, CFR Qingdao Todays price Weekly Average Monthly Average Quarterly Average to date Quarterly Average- one month in arrears 58% Fe, CFR Qingdao Todays price High Grade Premium

$/tonne Previous % Change $ Change 102.00 106.62 114.06 122.60 127.20 104.10 108.16 114.81 123.14 127.62 -2.0 -1.4 -2.10 -1.54

Fe Value in Use - Monthly Price

July 2012 June 2012 % Change $ Change 3.04 2.93 +3.8 +0.11

MB Iron Ore Index- Methodology Iron Ore Index Flowsheet SMX SMMBIO Aug-12 Settlement Price* 107.20 108.20

MB Fe Value in Use Methodology

$/tonne Previous % Change $ Change 90.66 2.00 92.35 2.00 -1.8 -1.69

Sept-12

"There's nothing we can do now except wait, and as long as steel production stays high, it's meaningless to talk about where the bottom for the iron ore price is," Tianjin based iron ore trader

Latest Data from SMX

*End of previous working day

65% Fe, Pellet, CFR Qingdao - Weekly Todays price

$/tonne Previous 17 Aug-13 10 Aug-6 % Change $ Change Aug Aug 133.31 136.69 -2.5 -3.38

Metal Bulletin Iron Ore Index, 62% ($/tonne)

190 180 170 160

Daily Index commentary Both Indices dropped relatively heavily again today with a number of deals being concluded. A good supply of material continues to be seen through tenders as well as the trading platforms but some producers are becoming reluctant to sell at rock bottom prices, preferring to hold onto material where possible. The MBIOI62 fell $2.10/tonne, taking the Index down $9.66/tonne this week so far. The MBIOI58 has seen similarly large falls, dropping more than $8/tonne this week. Yesterdays steel production release was higher than the market expected and continues to point at major issues for the Chinese steel market. Whilst the high output will continue to absorb significant quantities of iron ore we still expect output to drop over the medium term which will help steel prices recover but leave iron ore relatively over supplied until Chinese demand sees a substantial boost. Metal Bulletin recently launched the Metal Bulletin Fe Value-in-Use Index. Metal Bulletins new Dollar Fe Value-in-Use Index is a unique reference of the relation between each percentage of iron content and its price on a $/tonne CFR Qingdao basis in the iron ore spot market and relative to the 62% Fe Index MBIOI62. For more details please see the Metal Bulletin Fe Value-in-Use Index Methodology.

150 140 130 120 110 100 Aug'11

Oct'11

Dec'11

Feb'12

Apr'12

Jun'12

Metal Bulletin Iron Ore Index, 58% ($/tonne)

160 150 140 6.00 130 120 110 2.00 100 1.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 58% Index (LHS) High Grade Premium (RHS) 9.00 8.00 7.00

90 0.00 Aug'11 Sep'11 Oct'11 Nov'11 Dec'11 Jan'12 Feb'12 Mar'12 Apr'12 May'12 Jun'12

London Cameron Hunt- Director chunt@metalbulletin.com

Christopher Ellis- Analyst cellis@metalbulletin.com

Inaki Villanueva - Analyst ivillanueva@metalbulletin.com

Shanghai Xiaolei Xu- Analyst xu.xiaolei@metalbulletinasia.com

Metal Bulletin Iron Ore Index- Daily Market Report

Thursday, 23 August 2012