BEIJING: Ferrous futures in China traded higher on Friday, with iron ore notching its third straight weekly gain and hot-rolled coil prices its sixth, as falling steel stockpiles fuelled demand hopes. Inventories of five main steel products - construction-used steel rebar, wire rods, hot-rolled coils, cold-rolled coils and medium plates - fell 3.3% this week to 15 million tonnes as of Nov. 26, data from Mysteel consultancy showed.
Adding to demand, utilisation rates at 247 blast furnaces across China rose to 92.47% this week, according to Mysteel. The most traded iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, for January delivery, closed 1.5% higher at 902 yuan ($137.07) per tonne. It gained 1.6% this week.
Hot-rolled coils on the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped 2.1% to 4,151 yuan a tonne, logging its sixth week of gains. Steel rebar rose 1.2% to 3,924 yuan a tonne and stainless steel was up 1.1% at 13,355 yuan per tonne. Dalian coking coal inched up 0.4% at 1,404 yuan a tonne.
Dalian coke ended 0.8% higher at 2,450 yuan per tonne. China's factory activity likely expanded at a slightly faster pace in November, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, as the world's second-largest economy steadily recovers from the coronavirus crisis.
Profits at China's industrial firms grew in October for a sixth consecutive month and at their quickest pace since early 2017, pointing to a steady recovery in the manufacturing sector after it was hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. China's central bank said on Thursday it will make prudent monetary policy more flexible and targeted, and reiterated it will not resort to flood-like stimulus.
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