China's demand is supporting Australia's top miners despite the real estate crisis

Despite a slowdown and property crisis in the world's second-largest economy, Australia's largest mining companies report that steel demand in China remains strong.

Iron ore prices have also held up, with earnings broadly meeting analyst expectations.

This week, BHP, Rio Tinto, and Fortescue—the three largest resource companies listed in Australia—announced their financial results, providing a summary of the iron ore market. All of Fortescue's earnings and approximately 70 percent of BHP's and Rio's fundamental revenue before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for the relevant reporting periods came from iron ore.

According to Refinitiv, China is the world's biggest importer of iron ore, accounting for half of global steel production and about 70% of the world's seaborne supply. According to Fitch, the production of crude steel remained constant in 2023 at a little over one billion metric tons, and they anticipate a slowdown this quarter.

Although a severe housing glut has hurt major Chinese developers, the weakness in real estate has been somewhat offset, according to the executives of the three companies, by growth in other industries like infrastructure, machinery, automotive manufacturing, shipbuilding, consumer goods, and green energy.

According to Rio Tinto CEO Jakob Stausholm, the Chinese economy is "very robust." According to him, demand was supported by growing infrastructure, while other businesses remained "very strong" despite the decline in real estate.

Chinese demand for steel is diversifying, according to Fortescue Chief Executive Dino Otranto, who echoed that sentiment.