Dalian and Singapore iron ore futures fell on Wednesday as a crisis involving property developers in China, the world's largest steelmaker, outweighed rising margins at mills.
Iron ore's top-traded contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 in September ended volatile day trading at 786.50 yuan ($116.44) per tonne, down 0.8%.
On the Singapore Stock Exchange, the pre-month September contract for the steelmaking component fell 1.5% to $113 a tonne as of 0700 GMT, bringing losses to the fourth session.
Analysts said confidence is unlikely to be restored quickly, despite the Chinese government's support for the industry.
China's real estate market, already grappling with a debt crisis and weak demand, has recently been hit further by a mortgage boycott.
China's ailing real estate sector and the decarbonisation target of cutting annual steel output for a second consecutive year in 2022 are supported by recovering steel margins, but key concerns remain for iron ore traders.
According to metal information provider SMM, a total of 23 blast furnaces in China resumed production between July 21 and August 1, spurred by rising margins among dozens of plants that were idle for maintenance due to weak domestic steel demand.
Rebar (rebar) on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SRBcv1 was almost flat, while hot rolled coil and stainless steel rose 0.1%.
Dalian coking coal gained 0.8% and coke DCJcv1 gained 1.6%.
Comments
No comment yet.