Shares in Mount Gibson Iron, the Australian iron ore producer, dropped 24 per cent to 87.5 cents after it said a number of customers had requested shipments be delayed into next year.

There was evidence of a “slowdown in demand for iron ore in China due to current economic uncertainty and the tightening of credit facilities, leading to reductions in steel production and the current significant build-up of iron ore stockpiles at Chinese ports”, Mount Gibson said.

A number of large Chinese steel mills are expected to cut output by about 20 per cent this month to help support prices, and yesterday the difficult conditions in China's steel industry appeared to have claimed a victim: Singapore-listed FerroChina, one of China's smaller steelmakers, said that it was unable to repay working capital loans worth about Rmb706m ($104m), and has suspended manufacturing in China.