Iron Ore Pricing in China: Financialization Through a Marxist Lens
从马克思主义视角分析中国铁矿石定价机制从年度固定价转向指数价的过程，揭示金融化如何源于社会关系与生产力的冲突，并改变铁矿石作为资本的意义。
We offer a Marxist interpretation of financialization as we examine the Chinese market for iron ore and the shift in the pricing mechanism from an annual fixed price to an indexed price from 2010. Drawing upon Marx's theory of the circuit of capital, we illustrate an empirical case of financialization that results from the conflict between social relations and productive forces in the international iron ore market. We demonstrate how the different ways of accounting for iron ore prices have corresponded to the social and productive relations underlying the process of financialization. We argue that the shift in the pricing mechanism from a fixed price to an indexed price demonstrates a process of financialization whereby the ‘meaning’ of iron ore itself also shifts from productive capital to commercial capital, and finally financial capital. Intense conflicts among the major stakeholders that represent the social relations and productive forces—the China Iron and Steel Association, the Big Three iron ore suppliers, and the Chinese iron ore market—combined with the implementation of accounting measurement techniques to facilitate financialization.