BEIJING (Reuters) – Prices of iron ore futures fell on Tuesday, weighed down by concerns that demand for the key steelmaking raw material will slid, with steel demand in top consumer China showing signs of softening.
The most-traded January iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) traded 0.91% lower at 759 yuan ($106.58) a metric ton, as of 0148 GMT.
The benchmark November iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 1.08% lower at $100.7 a ton, as of 0141 GMT, after falling below the key psychological level of $100 a ton earlier in the session.
Transaction volumes of construction steel products slipped nearly 8% from the day before to 122,500 tons on Monday, data from consultancy Mysteel showed.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange posted loss. Rebar shed 0.83%, hot-rolled coil lost 1.05%, wire rod slid 2.2% and stainless steel fell 1.34%.
“After macro sentiment temporarily cooled, speculative demand has decreased significantly while the recovery of rigid demand is limited,” analysts at First Futures said in a note.
“Rebar is likely to build up inventories in November when demand will be weighed with weather getting colder (in the northern regions).”
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE lost ground, with coking coal and coke down 0.44% and 0.45%, respectively.
($1 = 7.1211 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Amy Lv and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
