BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Iron ore prices still have room to rise in the short term, which will to some extent drive up steel prices in the future, industry insiders generally believed.
Iron ore future prices have surged about 39.64 percent since the beginning of this year and will continue this upward trend in the future, industry insiders noted.
Insiders attributed the rising prices to multiple overseas mine accidents in recent months.
In 2018, China imported 1.038 billion tonnes of iron ore, a year-on-year decrease of 1.5 percent, while its reliance on imports still exceeded 80 percent, said Sun Hui, an analyst of Xiben New line Stock.
Statistics showed that rising raw material prices have reduced profit margin of domestic steel mills by nearly 200 yuan per tonne. (Edited by Bao Nuomin, Yang Yifan, baonuomin@xinhua.org, yangyifan@xinhua.org)
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