CHICAGO: Chinese steel futures resumed their record-setting rally on Thursday, after a five-day Labour Day holiday, over demand prospects and lifted prices of steelmaking ingredients including iron ore.

Asia’s iron ore benchmarks also rose after China’s state economic planner said it had decided to “indefinitely suspend” all activities under the China-Australia Strategic Economic Dialogue.

Australia is the world’s biggest iron ore supplier and covers about two-thirds of China’s import needs of the raw material. The most-traded construction steel rebar for October delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose as much as 4.2percent in morning trade to a record high of 5,644 yuan ($870.75) a tonne. Hot-rolled coil, which is steel used in car bodies and home appliances, climbed 3.5 percent to a record of 5,931 yuan a tonne.

Inventories of main steel products in China - rebar, wire rods, coils and plates - fell 5 percent last week from the prior week, while apparent consumption grew 5.3 percent.

Iron ore on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose as much as 5.5 percent to 1,169 yuan a tonne. On the Singapore Exchange, iron ore was up 1.2 percent at $189.15 a tonne.