Analysis Iron ore prices have tumbled after Beijing appears to have successfully suppressed the country’s demand after they cracked down on its domestic steel production. The key steel ingredient plummeted from near-record high prices of US$220 a tonne in July to US$140 last week, reaching its lowest value since December of last year. To achieve this, Beijing has cut demand for iron ore and shrank production over the last six months, slapping its steel exports with two separate price hikes whilst simultaneously lowering the cost of imports. The world’s largest steelmaker, state-owned Baowu, claimed that the plans to lower steel output fell in accordance with China’s emissions reduction targets. “This is a political issue with no room for bargaining, and it must be resolutely implemented,” Baowu Chairman Chen Derong said, reported Reuters. But a political analyst at Curtin University and author of 54 books on communist systems, Joseph Siracusa, believes …