Rio Tinto officially announced the resumption of its iron ore port operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia on March 30, 2026, after the passage of Tropical Cyclone Narelle. While ship loading at East Intercourse Island, Parker Point, and Cape Lambert B recommenced on March 28, repairs are ongoing at the Cape Lambert A facility, which is expected to return to service in early April. The company estimated that recent weather events, including Cyclone Mitchell in February, have impacted total shipments by approximately 8 million tonnes, though it maintains its annual shipment guidance of 323 to 338 million tonnes for 2026.

【SMM Steel】A cyclone that earlier hit Australia's northeast is now threatening LNG and mining ops in the west. System Narelle is expected to intensify as it moves parallel to the Pilbara coast. It threatens key LNG facilities and iron ore mines. Ports are clearing vessels. Australia, the top iron ore exporter, remains vulnerable. Narelle earlier forced closures of bauxite and manganese mines.

Indian steelmakers, led by JSW Steel, are increasingly sourcing high-grade Pilbara ores from Australia as China imposes selective import restrictions on certain BHP Group products. Industry reports indicate that Indian mills are leveraging these supply diversions to secure premium ores at competitive spot-market rates, stabilizing feedstock availability for their expanding integrated plants. This trend supports India's aggressive capacity growth targets while allowing Australian exporters to diversify their demand base away from a single dominant market.

This week, ferrous metals rebounded from the bottom. At the start of the week, coking coal and coke led the futures higher, mainly driven by rising crude oil prices in the overseas market, which pushed the energy and chemicals sector stronger accordingly; mid-week, both the U.S. and Iran signaled a more relaxed stance toward war, easing geopolitical tensions, while coal prices fell in tandem, weakening the cost-side logic, and ferrous metals fluctuated at highs; in the latter half of the week, worsening short-term liquidity issues in BHP's iron ore port inventory triggered stronger iron ore prices in the overseas market, while the Middle East situation remained volatile, reinforcing cost support and pushing ferrous metals higher again. In the spot market, supported by futures, end-user and arbitrage purchase sentiment both improved WoW this week......

On February 26, 2026, Alien Metals announced a targeted, iron-focused exploration program scheduled for Q2 2026 across its Pilbara portfolio in Australia. The program aims to explore the Vivash Project, which adjoins Fortescue's Vivash Southwest Mineral Resource that holds a 28 million tonne capacity at 58.8% Fe.

Australian producer Fortescue applied to Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) on February 17, 2026, to build the Wyloo North iron ore project in the Pilbara. The project has a planned capacity of 12 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and an average iron grade of 59.6% Fe. Fortescue plans to process the ore at its existing Eliwana facility to optimize current infrastructure.