Iron ore prices hit an all-time high on 12 May 2021, with the benchmark 62 percent fines index reaching $235 per tonne on a cost-and-freight basis, according to Wood Mackenzie. Two days earlier, the index had touched $230.56, up 8.6 percent in a single day, after China returned from its five-day Labour Day holiday to a market gripped by strong steel demand and tight supply. The monthly average for May came in at $207 per tonne, also a record. Prices had risen almost without interruption from about $80 a tonne in April 2020, driven by record Chinese steel production fuelled by infrastructure stimulus, and by supply problems in Brazil. Higher-grade 65 percent fines from Brazil topped $260 a tonne. The surge handed record profits to the big miners, BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue, and pushed steelmaking costs sharply higher. Some analysts warned the rally had the marks of a speculative blow-off, a warning that proved prescient within weeks.
Source: Wood Mackenzie — https://www.woodmac.com/reports/metals-iron-ore-markets-short-term-outlook-may-2021-497528/
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