Vale admits that everyone is nervous about the iron ore price crash

Brazilian mining giant Vale has admitted it is nervous about the plunge in iron ore prices below USD 80 per tonne as the Chinese government dampens hopes of aggressive policy stimulus to fuel growth.

Mr Stephen Potter Vale's director of strategic planning said that “It is always a challenge for large mining companies to work out their exposure to commodities, given structural shifts in powerful economies like China.

Mr Potter said that "Everyone is nervous about the iron ore price at the moment. Are we shifting from heavy industrial phase to a consumer led industrial phase in some classical economics professor's views on development, and does that mean China is going to be using less iron ore? Well these are always the challenges for a mining company to decide which commodities it needs to invest in."