Oil isn’t the only commodity suffering a price slump. <br /><br /> Iron ore has also dropped and for the same reason – oversupply in a weak global economy.<br /><br /> Just this week prices are down another three percent to a more than five year low. <br /><br /> You can now buy iron ore for half what it cost at the start of the year.<br /><br /> Increased production from the world’s biggest miners has lifted global supply at a time of slower economic growth in China which is a major buyer of ore to make steel. It imports two-thirds of the<br />world’s output. <br /><br /> The price is now below $70 a tonne and predicted to fall further. <br /><br /> Ivan Glasenberg, chief executive of commodity trader and miner Glencore said on Wednesday that lower prices, particularly of iron ore and oil, were a function of excess supply rather than weak demand.<br />“We don’t want to oversupply and cannibalise our own business,” Glasenberg said at the company’s annual investor day. <br /><br /> “If we do generate cash and we don’t find better ways to deploy it, we are owner-managers and we are happy to pay back some money to ourselves.”
