SINGAPORE: Iron ore futures prices edged higher on Thursday, supported by resilient demand for the steelmaking ingredient in top consumer China, though rising shipments from leading producers Australia and Brazil capped the upward momentum.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) was up 0.28% at 728 yuan ($101.10) a metric ton, as of 0300 GMT.
The benchmark June iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was down 0.36% at $99.45 a ton.
End-user demand remains resilient, particularly in the manufacturing sector, which continues to drive high growth in steel consumption, broker Galaxy Futures said in a note.
The capacity utilisation rate of 104 electric furnaces grew 1.2% week-on-week to 40.4%, while the daily consumption of scrap steel logged a weekly increase of 3.1% to 245,400 tons, said consultancy Hexun Futures.
Hot metal output, typically used to gauge iron ore demand, remained high this week at 2.4477 million tons, said broker Everbright Futures. Moreover, the total inventory of imported iron ore in 47 ports in China is 146.28 million tons, decreasing 1.74% week-on-week, said Hexun in a separate note.
On the supply side, the total volume of iron ore dispatched from mining firms in Australia and Brazil jumped 11.7% week-on-week to 27.1 million tons, said consultancy Mysteel. Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE dipped, with coking coal and coke both down around 0.5%.
Iron ore climbs on soft US dollar, resilient China demand
Meanwhile, China exported 447,800 tons of stainless steel in April, marking a 14.1% year-on-year surge, Mysteel said in a separate note, citing data released by the General Administration of Customs (GACC) on May 20.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained ground.
Rebar rose 0.2%, hot-rolled coil strengthened 0.34%, wire rod inched up 0.03% and stainless steel edged 0.08% higher.
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