Global Drivers For High Grade Iron Ore
Over the last decade, there has been structural shift in the global iron ore markets favouring higher-grade, lower-impurity iron ore products.
Generally, the lower the Fe grade of the iron-based feedstock, the higher the level of impurities such as phosphorus, silica, sulphur and alumina. More energy (i.e. coke) is required for blast furnaces to “slag-off” the impurities thereby generating more unwanted emissions and waste products.
The global community will continue to pressure industry to reduce environmental pollutants for the foreseeable future. This will result in a sustained demand from steelmakers for higher-grade, lower-impurity feedstock such as Razorback’s high grade iron ore concentrate.
Global Urbanisation and the Unprecedented Demand for Steel
Steel is the world’s most important engineering and construction material. It is used in every aspect of our modern lives; in cars and construction products, refrigerators and washing machines, cargo ships and surgical scalpels.
Steel is the most widely used metal in modern society. It is the primary building material and indicator for industrialisation, urbanisation and economic wealth. In 1950, two-thirds of the world’s population lived in rural areas. The United Nations predicts that urbanisation, the gradual shift of the human population from rural to urban areas, combined with the overall growth of the world’s population will add another 2.5 billion people to urban areas by 2050, with close to 90% of this increase taking place in Asia and Africa.
The urbanisation of 2.5 billion people over the next few decades has resulted in the need to build the equivalent of a city the size of New York every month for the next 40 years.
