Standard Bank Plc said that shipments of iron ore will be curbed by 8.2% this month after supplies shrank from from Brazil, India and South Africa.

Ms Melinda Moore London based bulk commodity sales executive at the bank said that output losses from a strike ending today at South Africa’s Sishen mine, the country’s largest, are estimated at 1.6 million metric tonnes.

Moore said that protesters in Brazil blocked a railroad transporting ore from the Carajas mine of Vale SA, the world’s biggest producer, for four days earlier this month, which equated to a loss of 1 million tons of shipments.

Mining bans are further curbing 5 million tonnes of ore from leaving the Indian state of Goa in October.

Moore said that “We estimate that 8.2% of seaborne supplies have been lost from the market in October due to these various policy-driven and protester incidents.”

Source - Bloomberg

(www.steelguru.com)