BEIJING/SHANGHAI: Benchmark iron ore futures in China slipped about 3% on Monday, hurt by sluggish downstream demand and fresh environmental restrictions in a main steelmaking region.

The most-active iron ore futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, for January delivery, closed down 2.9% at 788.5 yuan ($116.49) per tonne, after dropping as much as 3.3% earlier.

“The decline was mainly due to downstream demand, which did not pick up as markets expected,” a Beijing-based ferrous trader said.

“Real estate developers are not very motivated... It’s possible that this year has no sales peak season for property.”

China’s top steelmaking city Tangshan had rolled out plans to curb sintering operations at some mills due to unfavourable weather conditions, state-run China Metallurgical News reported on Sunday.

Steel rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped 1.6% to 3,553 yuan a tonne.

Hot-rolled coils slipped 1.4% to 3,677 yuan a tonne.

Spot prices of iron ore with 62% iron content for delivery to China rose by $2 to $125 per tonne on Friday from the previous session.

Dalian coking coal closed flat at 1,271 yuan per tonne.

Coke edged 1% lower to 1,960 yuan per tonne.

Shanghai stainless steel, for November delivery, slipped 0.3% to 14,000 yuan per tonne.

Despite two major deadly mining disasters since 2015, Brazilian iron ore miner Vale SA has not complied with a number of commitments signed with authorities to prevent a third disaster, federal prosecutor Edison Vitorelli told Reuters.