Commodity prices have had a rough ride dropping considerably between 2011 and 2012; Iron ore is down -22.25% and coking coal -37.11% y-o-y.
Only coke is up at +2.37%. Nobel and base metals are all down, Ni for example fell -23.23% and Sn -18.9% and Zn -11.13%.
Only three of the 22 commodities CRU include in their quarterly commodity price benchmarking exercise saw prices increase over this period: Gold, Ammonia and Met Coke.
CRU is forecasting a lacklustre year for commodity prices in 2013. The average price forecasts for the 22 commodities assessed in the Commodity Heat Chart is flat (0% change on average) for 2013.
CRU analysts predict that 13 of the 22 commodity prices will rise over 2013 against eight that will see commodity price declines for the year. But the expected price variance from the CRU benchmark is narrower than it has been in the past.
Source: MEPS www.meps.co.uk
