If iron ore were meant to wilt under the weight of China’s cooling property market, geopolitical jitters and shifting industrial supply chains, it has so far refused to play along. Instead, the steelmaking ingredient enters 2026 in far ruder health than most analysts had pencilled in. Prices have remained stubbornly above expectations, supported by stable steel output, measured increases in global supply and a seaborne market that, unfashionably for commodities, has stayed remarkably well-balanced. A new consensus is forming among mining houses, traders and policymakers: this is not a speculative upswing fuelled by ... (full story)