S&P Global Platts expects iron ore prices to correct to USD 180 per tonne, Paul Bartholomew, senior managing editor, told CNBC-TV18.

“Chinese steel prices have been edging up, there seems to be an activity in the domestic market given that Asia and the rest of the world take it leads from China; we could see a bit of an uptick but we certainly expect iron ore prices to be around USD 180 per tonne,” he said.

On the Chinese market, Bartholomew said, “The Chinese market continues to confound because we have been expecting a much weaker Q3 and we were forecasting steel and iron ore prices coming off and some of the macro data has been quite mixed.”

“However, there is still a fair bit of demand in the market; we have seen iron ore prices go up and it’s at USD 222 per tonne at the moment and steel prices are still fairly strong. So, a lot of confusion about where the market direction is heading because normally Q3 tends to be softer. There’s some residual bullish tendency in the market that just won’t go away,” he said.

Bartholomew also added, “Typically, the sense is that prices have been rising for so long and at such big increase, it’s natural that the market will have a bit of a pause. It’s not always easy to pass on these rising costs to end-users because they, in turn, have to pass on to their customers.”

For the entire interview, watch the video.

(Edited by : Dipika Ghosh)