At the end of the latest session, benchmark iron ore for immediate delivery to the port of Tianjin in China was trading at $US76.00 a tonne, down 1.4 per cent from its previous close of $US77.10.

It continues a sharp decline for the commodity over the past fortnight after it had staged a strong, if brief, recovery back to levels comfortably above $US80 a tonne by mid-October.

In all the iron ore price has given up about 44 per cent in 2014, with the most recent trough representing the lowest level seen since June 2009.

Adding to new Australian supplies that have flooded the market all year, even as Chinese steel demand growth has faltered, are reports that steel mills in Beijing have been ordered to suspend production in the lead-up to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum that starts tomorrow in the capital.

“Spot iron ore fell on ongoing concerns over weak demand around the APEC meeting in Beijing,” ANZ Bank said in a client note. “Sentiment was also hit by an increase in iron ore stockpiles at Chinese ports.”

The temporary steel mill �closures are aimed at reducing smog in the city, where Mr Abbott, US President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and others will be attending the forum.

“Steel mills in Hebei have been asked to suspend production due to APEC, which affects iron ore demand temporarily,” said Yi Zhu, a Hong Kong-based metals and mining analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

“The mills will resume producing after the conference.” Bloomberg said most cuts would happen in Hebei, the biggest steel producing region that surrounds the capital, and Shandong, the third-biggest.

Smaller iron ore stocks suffered yesterday but the bigger stocks were not hit badly by the short-term halt in production.

Atlas Iron fell 7 per cent and Gindalbie Metals lost 8 per cent. Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group slipped 1.8 per cent while BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto lost 0.6 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively.

Anglo American, which has finally started its Minas-Rio iron ore project in Brazil four years behind schedule, said any recovery could take 18 months, scotching hopes of an end-of-year rally. Paulo Castellari, chief executive of Anglo’s iron ore unit in Brazil, said iron ore prices would probably trade between $US75 and $US80 in the short term. “We will have another readjustment starting in 12 to 18 months because we know a lot of people won’t survive with prices between $US70 to $US90,” he said.�