Iron Ore Price History: Monthly Global Price Since 2006

Iron ore is the primary raw material for steel (over 95% of mined ore is used in steelmaking) which makes its price one of the cleanest market reads on global construction and Chinese industrial demand. This dataset reproduces the iron ore spot price of the World Bank Pink Sheet: fines of any origin delivered (CFR) to China, in US dollars per dry metric ton, as monthly averages since January 2006. The grade is 62% Fe from December 2008 and 63.5% Fe before. Australia and Brazil dominate exports; China consumes the majority.

Dataset: Iron Ore Price (2006–2026) · Updated 2026-10-01

Data provided as is, with no warranty of accuracy or timeliness. Check any figure against the primary source cited on this page before using it. Terms: legal notice.

Source: World Bank, Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet) · CC BY 4.0

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns. Each row represents one calendar month.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats: monthly observations since January 2006.

Data provided as is, with no warranty of accuracy or timeliness. Check any figure against the primary source cited on this page before using it. Terms: legal notice.

Source Data Access: World Bank Pink Sheet

The underlying series is the “Iron ore, cfr spot” column of the Monthly Prices sheet in the World Bank’s Commodity Price Data, known as the Pink Sheet. The World Bank publishes it as a monthly Excel workbook on its commodity markets page, under a CC BY 4.0 licence that requires attribution to the World Bank.

The Eco3min dataset reproduces that column unmodified from January 2006, in US dollars per dry metric ton, in a stable CSV with a fixed column name for direct use in Python, R or any data pipeline. The URL never changes, which makes it suitable for automated scripts.

Direct CSV Access: Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/iron-ore-price.csv

This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/iron-ore-price.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(df.head())
print(df["iron_ore_price"].describe())

df.plot(x="date", y="iron_ore_price", title="Iron Ore Price", legend=False)

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/iron-ore-price.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

head(df)
summary(df$iron_ore_price)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL, no download or API key required.

Methodology

The World Bank reports the iron ore price in US dollars per dry metric ton: the spot price of fines of any origin delivered (CFR) to China, at 62% Fe from December 2008 and 63.5% Fe from January 2006 to November 2008.

Values are monthly averages, which smooth the intra-month swings visible in daily futures and physical quotes. The file begins in January 2006. For earlier years the Pink Sheet column holds annual contract prices for Brazilian ore sold to Europe, in US cents per dry metric ton unit (1% Fe per dry ton), so Eco3min leaves them out.

An Eco3min pipeline on GitHub Actions reads the Pink Sheet workbook after each monthly release, keeps the column unmodified and regenerates the CSV, Excel and JSON files and the page metadata. The World Bank updates the Pink Sheet on the second business day of each month.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

The Pink Sheet price is a widely cited reference for the physical market. A few provider-specific points matter when using this series.

• Release latency. The World Bank publishes the Pink Sheet on the second business day of each month, with the average of the month just ended. Eco3min refreshes the file after each release. The series is not a real-time price.
• Monthly average vs futures spot. This series is a monthly average. It will differ from any single exchange settlement, and a monthly average necessarily understates intra-month peaks.
• Revisions. Prices are market-derived and are not revised like survey-based macro series, but the World Bank can correct recent months or replace a series, and it lists those changes in the notes of the Pink Sheet workbook.
• Source change on 30 September 2026. Until that date this file reproduced another publisher’s series, which held annual contract prices until November 2008; the whole history was then rebuilt from the Pink Sheet spot column, so figures downloaded earlier differ strongly for 2006 to 2008 and only marginally from December 2008.
• Coverage from January 2006. Files downloaded before 30 September 2026 started in 1992. The rows before 2006 were dropped because the Pink Sheet gives only annual contract prices, in US cents per dry metric ton unit, for those years. From January 2006 to November 2008 the earlier file held flat annual contract levels, so those months differ sharply from the Pink Sheet spot prices.
• Grade change in December 2008. The spot price refers to 63.5% Fe fines until November 2008 and to 62% Fe fines from December 2008. The file keeps both segments unmodified, so the two sides of the switch price slightly different ore.
• Alternative sources. ICE futures and the originating auction or indicator bodies provide higher-frequency or contract-specific quotes.

Common Pitfalls When Using This Series

1. Confusing nominal and real prices. This series is nominal. Comparing a 2006 reading to a recent one without adjusting for cumulative inflation overstates the real change. Deflating by CPI gives the true purchasing-power move.
2. Reading the monthly average as a market price. Headlines quote exchange futures; this dataset reports the monthly benchmark average. The two diverge most during fast-moving rallies.
3. Unit confusion. This series is the spot price of fines CFR China in US dollars per dry metric ton, at 62% Fe since December 2008 and 63.5% Fe before. It differs from lower-grade (58% Fe) or higher-grade (65% Fe) products, from SGX iron ore futures and from pre-2006 annual contract prices. Related material: iron ore as a steel-demand gauge.

Historical Regimes

2006–2009: Spot boom and crash. The spot series opens below $70 per ton in January 2006. Chinese steel demand lifted it above $190 by November 2007 and to a peak near $200 in March 2008, at the 63.5% Fe grade. The global financial crisis then cut it to $65 in November 2008 and below $60 in April 2009.

2010–2011: Post-crisis peak. Demand from Chinese mills drove a second boom as annual benchmarks gave way to spot pricing. The price peaked near $190 per ton in February 2011, below the March 2008 high.

2012–2015: Glut and collapse. Surging Australian and Brazilian supply plus a Chinese property slowdown nearly halved prices during 2014, from near $130 in January to below $70 in December. The slide continued to about $40 per ton in December 2015, the low of the file.

2016–2019: Recovery. A Chinese stimulus-led rebound and the 2019 Vale Brumadinho dam disaster, which cut supply, lifted prices from below $45 per ton in January 2016 to about $120 in July 2019.

2020–2021: Record. Post-Covid Chinese steel demand drove iron ore to an all-time high above $210 per ton in June 2021, before Chinese output curbs more than halved it, to below $100 in November 2021.

2022–2026: China property drag. A prolonged Chinese property downturn kept prices between about $90 and $150 per ton, with averages near $100 in 2025 and in the first eight months of 2026.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Commodity Price Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min commodity price repository: energy, metals, agricultural softs and grains, most of them from the World Bank Pink Sheet.

Explore the Commodity Price Hub

Sources

• World Bank: Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), Monthly Prices, column “Iron ore, cfr spot” (CC BY 4.0)
• Iron ore fines spot assessments, CFR China (62% Fe, 63.5% Fe before December 2008), the market basis of the Pink Sheet series

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). Iron Ore Price: Global Monthly Price (2006-2026). Source: World Bank, Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), CC BY 4.0.<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/iron-ore-price-history-dataset/