SINGAPORE: Iron ore futures prices rose on Monday to their highest in a week, underpinned by growing bets top consumer China will unveil more stimulus in its third plenum this week after a batch of economic data disappointed investors.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended morning trade 1.76% higher at 840 yuan ($115.68) a metric ton, the highest since July 8.
The benchmark August iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 1.3% higher at $109.2 a ton, as of 0419 GMT. It hit an intraday high at $110.15 a ton earlier in the session, also the highest since July 8.
China’s economy slowed in the second quarter, data showed on Monday, as a protracted property downturn and job insecurity weighed on domestic demand, keeping alive expectations Beijing will need to unleash more stimulus.
The world’s second-largest economy grew 4.7% in April-June, official data showed, its slowest since the first quarter of 2023 and missing a 5.1% analysts’ forecast in a Reuters poll.
Growth was also down from the 5.3% expansion in the previous quarter.
This came after Chinese bank lending jumped less than expected in June while some key money gauges hit fresh record lows, data showed last Friday.
A highly anticipated third plenum that started from Monday will outline efforts to promote advanced manufacturing, manage a vast property crisis, and boost domestic consumption, policy advisers say.
Also supporting prices of the key steelmaking ingredient is the resilient demand in the near term, according to analysts.
China produced a daily average of about 3.05 million tons of crude steel in June, the highest since April 2023, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE moved higher, with coking coal and coke up 1.2% and 2.3%, respectively. Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange trended up.
Rebar rose 1.3%, hot-rolled coil gained 1.1%, stainless steel ticked nearly 0.4% higher while wire rod was little changed.
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