BEIJING: China’s commodity exchanges on Monday moved to raise trading limits and margin requirements for some iron ore contracts and reinstated fees on steel futures as a blistering rally in the ferrous metals complex showed no signs of abating.
China is the world’s top steel producer and biggest consumer of iron ore, the key steelmaking ingredient. A recent spike in prices for the material, partly fuelled by supply concerns, continued with a 10% limit-up surge on Monday to a record 1,326 yuan ($207) a tonne, squeezing mills’ profits.
The Dalian Commodity Exchange said it would raise trading limits and margin requirements for iron ore contracts for delivery in June, September, October and December, as well as for January-April 2022 from the May 11 trading day, without providing figures.
The margin requirement is the minimum amount of capital that must be deposited to trade futures.
Separately, the Shanghai Futures Exchange said it would set fees for closing positions on the most active contracts for its steel rebar and hot-rolled steel coil futures, for delivery in October, at 0.01% of the total transaction value, starting from the evening session on May 11. The fees had previously been waived. Rebar and hot-rolled coil both hit record highs on Monday.—Reuters
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