The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

Iron miners such as BBL, VALE, and CLF have been among the best investments in the entire market during the past couple of years and have been especially strong during the past few days (#msg-57320093). One reason for the stocks’ recent strength is that 1Q11 quarterly contract prices for seaborne iron ore, which are based on the average of the previous quarter with a one-month lag (i.e. the average for Sep-Nov 2010), are now known and the numbers are bullish for the industry.

The post by ‘stuffit’ in #msg-57239289 has the details. Note that VALE receives a higher per-tonne contract price than the other producers because its ore has a higher concentration of Fe (66% vs 62%).