3. World trade trends

The second half of the 20th century saw a twofold evolution:

• geographic dissociation of iron ore mines and steelworks, which used to be located in close proximity to each other. In fact, historically, there was a tendency to set up an ironworks directly on the iron ore deposit;

• This is a recent development, in that steel companies have tended to spin off their mining activities, leading to the creation (or development) of major mining companies which, it should be noted, are often not solely concerned with iron ore.