The pace of bad news from iron ore miners is accelerating. And that means we might actually be getting close to a bottom.

Shortly after we published the latest issue of Australian Edge yesterday, news broke that BHP Billiton Ltd. (ASX: BHP, NYSE: BHP) has decided to defer an investment in a project to “debottleneck” its infrastructure at Australia’s Port Hedland, the world’s largest terminal for iron ore.

The goal of the project was to boost the company’s export capacity at the port to 290 million metric tons per annum by mid-2017. Although the company says that existing infrastructure at the harbor continues to exceed expectations, it also conceded that tabling the investment for a year, or perhaps even indefinitely, means it will take longer to achieve the aforementioned goal.

While BHP did not reveal the amount of savings from the deferment, analysts with RBC Capital Markets estimate the savings will total around USD600 million.

With some investors starting to question the sustainability of BHP’s progressive dividend policy, those savings should prove helpful. As Andrew Driscoll, head of resources research at CLSA, told the Australian Financial Review, the decision will “lower the capital-expenditure profile a little over the next couple of years to preserve free cash flow to support the dividend and balance sheet.”

At the same time, BHP’s latest operational review revealed that the company’s iron ore production is still on course to rise 13% year over year for fiscal-year 2015 (ending June 30).

Total production is expected to come in at 250 million metric tons, a level that’s 2% higher than the company’s prior guidance. And management believes that it can achieve additional capacity of 20 million metric tons per annum without the need for additional fixed plant investment.

Meanwhile, CEO Andrew McKenzie notes that the cost of production at BHP’s Western Australia Iron Ore unit is now below USD20 per metric ton, a slight improvement from the USD20.35 per metric ton in its last report.

As a result, BHP’s latest move may be more significant from a market sentiment standpoint than in terms of actual production.

Indeed, Mark Pervan, head of commodities at ANZ Bank told Reuters, “It is probably more a symbolic posturing position by BHP, but it also likely signals the bottom of the iron ore market, given this action is being taken by one of the lowest-cost producers.”

Consequently, the price of iron ore jumped 5.9% today, to USD54.04, according to data from Metal Bulletin Ltd. Bloomberg says that’s the biggest one-day gain since October 2012.

Of course, it’s way too soon to tell whether we’ve already seen a bottom, especially since the supply glut will continue until there’s a true capitulation by BHP competitors Vale SA (NYSE: VALE) and Rio Tinto Ltd. (ASX: RIO, NYSE: RIO), the largest and second-largest global producers of iron ore, respectively.

A pick-up in demand from China would also go a long way toward restoring balance to the iron ore market, but the Middle Kingdom’s economic slowdown seems to be gathering momentum.

At this point, with the price of iron ore down about 60% from its interim high in December 2013, it might seem like the metal can’t possibly drop that much further.

For now at least, the most bearish forecast among the 16 analysts tracked by Bloomberg is for iron ore to bottom at an average price of USD45 per metric ton during the first quarter of 2016.

Although we came close to that level a little more than two weeks ago, when the price of iron ore hit a low for this cycle of USD47 per metric ton, that bearish forecast is an outlier.

By contrast, the consensus forecast calls for iron ore to hit a bottom during the third quarter, at an average price of USD62 per metric ton.