Fortescue shares hit three-year low

Shares in Fortescue Metals have plunged by more than nine per cent to their lowest level in three years, amid a falling iron ore price and concerns about the miner's about-face on expansion plans.
Fortescue shares had fallen 32 cents, or 9.4 per cent, to $3.09 by 1250 AEST.
A volume of nearly 41 million Fortescue shares have changed hands - the highest on the Australian Securities Exchange.
Iron ore miners, including Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton and smaller caps Atlas Iron and BC Iron all posted share price falls of between two and four per cent on Wednesday.

Even some good news for its balance sheet could not help the share price, after Fortescue said it would pocket $US300 million ($A294.59 million) from the sale of a power station at its Solomon mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia to a Canadian company.
Fortescue's woes are related to iron ore spot prices that had dropped to about $US87 ($A85.43) a tonne on Wednesday, less than half the record levels of about $US180 ($A176.76) a tonne in the first half of calendar 2011.
Iron ore is Australia's biggest export earner.
Fortescue announced plans on Tuesday to shelve $US1.6 billion ($A1.57 billion) of expansion plans and cut hundreds of workers' jobs.
Less than a fortnight ago, Fortescue chief executive Nev Power said the miner would press on with its $US9 billion ($A8.84 billion) largely debt-funded expansion of output to 155 million tonnes a year by next June.
Now it is only planning to expand to 115 million tonnes a year.
Analysts from investment bank UBS forecast a return to $US120 a tonne for the spot iron ore price by the end of the year.