The iron ore price paid by China has fallen by almost a quarter from its September peak to $138 a tonne. But mining houses show little sign of slowing their capital expenditure. Anglo Americandevoted a fifth of its $2.3bn capex in the first half to iron ore development projects in Brazil and South Africa. Its project pipeline for the steelmaking ore has expanded fivefold since 2007. BHP Billiton, with capex in its year to June at more than 40 per cent of its $30bn net operating cash flow, has set aside $8.4bn for iron ore projects this year. Rio Tintoand Valealso invest hard in capacity.
中國支付的鐵礦石價格已從9月份的頂點下降了近四分之一，降至每噸138美元。但礦商們并沒有表現出減緩資本支出的跡象。英美資源集團(Anglo American)將其上半年23億美元資本支出的五分之一，投入了巴西和南非的鐵礦石開發項目。自2007年以來，其煉鋼用鐵礦石開發項目的規模已經擴大了四倍。在截至6月份的財年里，必和必拓(BHP Billiton)的資本支出較其300億美元的凈營運現金流多出40%。今年，必和必拓已撥出84億美元用于鐵礦石項目。力拓(Rio Tinto)和淡水河谷(Vale)也斥巨資擴大產能。