Australia’s iron ore riches challenged by green steel and African rival - Financial Times

The global iron ore market is undergoing a fundamental transformation that threatens Australia's decades-long dominance and creates unprecedented opportunities for African producers to capture market share in Europe's transition to sustainable steelmaking. For over a century, Australia has maintained an iron grip on global iron ore supply, leveraging vast reserves, established infrastructure, and economies of scale to control approximately 50% of the world's seaborne iron ore trade. However, converging pressures—the accelerating shift toward green steel production, tightening environmental regulations in developed markets, and the emergence of competitive African suppliers—are fundamentally reshaping the competitive landscape. The green steel revolution represents the most significant disruption to steel markets since industrialisation. European steelmakers, facing mandatory carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAM) and pressure from institutional investors to decarbonise, are increasingly prioritising suppliers based on environmental credentials rather than cost alone. This shift advantages African producers who can develop low-carbon extraction and processing methods while benefiting from geographical proximity to European markets via shorter shipping routes and reduced transportation emissions. West African nations, particularly Mauritania, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, possess substantial untapped iron ore reserves comparable in scale to Australia's deposits. Mauritania alone holds an estimated 1.8 billion tonnes of proven iron ore reserves, with