SINGAPORE: Iron ore futures prices dipped on Monday, weighed down by concerns about a persistently weak steel market and adverse weather in top consumer China.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended morning trade 0.26% lower at 778 yuan ($107.22) a metric ton. The benchmark August iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 0.7% lower at $101.45 a ton, as of 0335 GMT.
Most steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange posted losses. Rebar shed around 0.4%, hot-rolled coil and wire rod lost about 0.9% each, while stainless steel gained 0.8%. Pessimism pervaded the Chinese iron ore market last week, with steelmakers and traders rushing to sell off rebar stocks ahead of the implementation of new rebar standards, consultancy Mysteel said.
More than 27,000 people in China were evacuated and hundreds of factories were ordered to suspend production as Typhoon Gaemi brought heavy rains, state media reported on Saturday. Steel inventories at major Chinese steel mills rose for a second consecutive week in mid-July, increasing 5.8% from early July and 4% from a year earlier, data from the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) showed.
Vale, one of the world’s largest iron ore producers, is confident it will meet the top end of its 2024 production forecast, which stands between 310 million to 320 million metric tons.
The company said it has a “positive eye on China”, as the economy is resilient and while the property sector faces a decline, infrastructure is playing an important role. China will allocate 300 billion yuan ($41.40 billion) in treasury bonds for economic recovery, the government said on Thursday.
The bond funds will support the replacing and upgrading of steel-intensive consumer and industrial goods. Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE lost ground, with coking coal and coke down 0.24% and 0.62%, respectively.
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