Chinese steel output fell by 1.3 percent in the first half of the year. This is self-evidently not good news for the iron ore market, given China is the single biggest buyer of seaborne ore. A surge in supply on the back of expansions by the world’s largest producers was always going to pose hard questions of the iron ore price. The adjustment process gets a whole lot messier if demand from Chinese steel-mills is contracting exactly at the same time as new supply is looking to find a home. Which is why the iron ore price, as assessed by The Steel Index, is struggling to stay above the $50-per-tonne level, just shy of the all-time low of $44.10 registered at the start of this month. […]