Iron ore falls as Pilbara killer bites

Wednesday 22 July 2026

Iron ore had been trading in lockstep with oil through H1 as freight rates roared higher.

No longer. The recent sell-off in iron ore began as oil took off.

This is happening even as the mid-year tailwind of summer construction starts is in play in China, though it remains very weak and getting weaker.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.