Early this week I was with an Australian government representative in Beijing whom I have known
for many years and he told me that
iron ore prices were currently around $ 83 (I think they dropped another $ 2 last week), and that while some people in Canberra were reluctant to say it too loudly, he and others were increasingly in agreement with my lower
forecast of less than $ 50 well before the end of the decade, in part because supply has come off much more slowly than predicted, but mainly because they now recognize that China's rebalancing was indeed going to be a far bigger deal
for Chinese demand than sell - side research had predicted.