If you were wondering why the iron ore price has dropped from above US$100 a tonne to current levels of US$60 per tonne, the chart below tracks the major iron ore producers and their production over the past few years – and their expected production over the next 4 years.
Companies include Australia's ASX-listed companies BHP Billiton Limited (ASX: BHP), Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) and Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG), as well as Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting (Roy Hill) and China's state-back company CITIC and its Sino Iron Ore project, which has yet to ramp up to its full production of an estimated 24 million tonnes per year.
You can see that these producers alone will have more than doubled iron ore production from 2009 in 2016.
That doesn't even factor in smaller Australian producers like Mount Gibson Iron Limited (ASX: MGX), Atlas Iron Limited (ASX: AGO), Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN), Arrium Limited (ASX: ARI), nor a host of other global producers.