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Iron ore at over 6-month short on installing worries of alleviating Chinese need

Iron ore futures prices decreased on Wednesday, on fears of a reduction in demand in top customer China amid rising equipment upkeep amongst steelmakers and latest ecological curbs in northern area of the nation.

The most-traded May iron ore on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended daytime trade 2.53% lower at 807.5 yuan ($ 112.29) per metric load, the lowest given that August 2023.

The benchmark April iron ore on the Singapore Exchange toppled 4.42% to $103.45 a ton, since 0707 GMT, the lowest given that Aug 2023, after stronger-than-expected U.S. inflation data clouded prospects of the Federal Reserve cutting rate of interest soon.

Pressing prices of the crucial steelmaking component is growing concern over a possible more decrease in demand in coming weeks, said analysts.

There is a boost in maintenance on blast heating systems among mills this week, showing additional fall in hot metal output, consultancy Shanghai Metals Market stated in a note.

The everyday crude steel output among member mills fell by 3.38% from the previous period to about 2.06 million lots in the first ten days of March, information from the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) revealed.

Souring sentiment is news that the city of Tangshan in north China's Hebei province, the country's major steel production center, announced execution of a level two emergency situation reaction from Wednesday amid forecast of heavy air pollution.

Regional steel mills are typically required to curb production throughout emergency actions.

Furthermore, lack of details around extra supportive measures to restore the beleaguered Chinese residential or commercial property markets continued to be a drag, experts at ANZ stated in a note.

Falling home sales and moneying issues looks structural, signalling little room for any improvement in this construction season, they included.

Other steelmaking active ingredients on the DCE receded, with coking coal and coke down 3.85% and 2.38%,. respectively to their most affordable levels because last August.

Steel standards on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were. dragged down.

Rebar dropped 1.02%, hot-rolled coil lost. 0.42%, wire rod shed 0.18% and stainless steel. reduced 0.22%.

(source: Reuters)