ASX 200 mining shares are struggling today amid falling commodity prices, including iron ore.
The big three ASX 200 mining giants — Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX: FMG), BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) — are all sliding today.
Let's take a look at what's at play.
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Commodity prices suffer
The BHP share price is down 5.24% at the time of writing while Fortescue is 6.64% lower and Rio Tinto is 4.13% in the red.
All three are all iron ore explorers. On global markets overnight, the iron ore price has fallen 6.19% to US$136.50 per tonne, Trading Economics data shows. Aluminum prices have also slid 4.64%.
Meanwhile, iron ore on the Chinese Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) fell nearly 11%, Reuters reported.
Commenting on the slide, SinoSteel Futures analyst Cheng Peng said:
The plunge was driven by the domestic COVID-19 situation, as market expectations on demand failed, while raw material prices lost support on state planner's output controls.
Meanwhile, analysts predict the BHP share price could be a buying opportunity, as my Foolish colleague James reported today.
Last week, Morgans kept its add rating on the company and lifted the price target to $54.30. This represents an 18% upside on the current share price of $45.93 at the time of writing.
Meanwhile, the Goldman Sachs equity desk handled a transaction of $215 million in Fortescue shares on Tuesday, the Australian Financial Review reported. The trade was rumoured to have been at $19.95 a share, a nearly 6% discount on Friday's closing price of $21.22.
