Prices of iron ore and its consequent by-product steel will find a hard time to rebound in at least the next six months, not until China's economic growth posts record giant leaps, said the chief executive officer of Shale-Inland Holdings LLC, a diversified steel services company.

"There's not going to be a recovery in steel in the next six months," Craig Bouchard, Shale-Inland CEO, said in Bloomberg News.

"You can't expect a recovery in iron-ore prices until we see a recovery in the world economy."

Mr Bouchard particularly noted the slowing economy of China, the world's largest consumer of metals and minerals, will drive prices of basic commodities to go crazier than it is at present rates.

The economy of the world's second-largest has been projected to grow between 5 per cent to 6 per cent in 2013, Mr Bouchard said, and this will greatly affect the world commodities market.

Prices of iron ore hit a near three-year low of $86.70 per tonne earlier in September. Although it has since recovered, mainly on China's pronouncements of a more than $150 billion massive infrastructure construction projects plan, the commodity has since had a hard time getting its act to post stable prices.

Even global miner BHP Billiton, in what seemed to be a sign of surrender, believed the high prices that iron ore recorded in 2011 of over $190 a tonne will not happen again because of slowing global demand growth.

Prices of iron ore and steel have fallen 25 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively, this year.

Based in Schiller Park, Illinois, Shale-Inland is a distributor and fabricator of steel, aluminum and tape products.

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