MANILA: Iron ore futures rose on Monday, rebounding from last week's steep losses, but volumes thinned in subdued trading ahead of China's Oct. 1-8 National Day holiday.
The most-active iron ore for January 2021 delivery on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange closed 0.9% higher at 770 yuan ($112.86) a tonne.
On the Singapore Exchange, the October contract gained 0.8% to $114.10 a tonne by 0731 GMT.
Both Dalian and Singapore benchmarks are set for quarterly gains despite easing recently after hitting their highest levels since 2014 early this month, with support intact after Australia painted a less somber price outlook.
In a quarterly report, the Department of Industry of top iron ore supplier Australia projected the price to be around $100 a tonne over the final quarter of 2020, before easing to around $80 by end-2021 and $75 by end-2022.
"The fundamental driver of price growth remains the nexus between volatile and disrupted supply from Brazil, against robust and consistent demand from China," it said. "There is little immediate prospect for a major change in these dynamics."
The spot price for benchmark 62% iron ore bound for China stood at $117.50 a tonne on Friday, down 8.5% from its Sept.8 peak, based on SteelHome consultancy data.
Prices have pulled back amid rising Chinese port stockpiles, which hit a six-month high of 120.3 million tonnes last week, SteelHome data also showed.
"September is setting up to be another solid month for overall offtakes into China," said shipping intelligence firm Kpler, which projected iron ore arrivals of close to 106 million tonnes, higher than the August import volume of 100.36 million tonnes.
Construction steel rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange edged up 0.1%, while hot-rolled coil was virtually flat. Stainless steel gained 0.5%.
Coking coal climbed 0.9%, but coke slipped 0.6%.
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