When iron ore miners forced through a 19 per cent price rise two years ago, their Chinese clients were irate. Steel mills in China accused the mining industry of “breaching the rules”, while the government said the pricing was “unfair” and threatened to block imports. The issue nearly became a diplomatic dispute.

This year the mining industry appears to have won a much bigger boost – Japanese and Korean steel mills have agreed to pay 65 per cent more for Brazilian iron ore – but the response so far from the Chinese side has been more measured.