SINGAPORE: Dalian iron ore futures prices dropped on Thursday to their lowest in more than two weeks, as higher supplies from top miners outweighed support from fresh property-sector stimulus measures in top consumer China.
The most-traded January iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended morning trade 3.47% lower at 766.0 yuan ($107.54) a metric ton. The contract had earlier slumped as much as 3.84% to 762.0 yuan, its weakest level since Sept. 30.
The benchmark November iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 2.33% lower at $102.3 a ton, as of 0330 GMT. BHP, the world’s largest listed miner, beat first-quarter iron ore output estimates, spurred by easing bottlenecks at its Western Australia operations. On Tuesday, Brazilian miner Vale reported its highest quarterly iron ore production since 2018.
On the back of significantly increased Brazilian shipments, the total volume of iron ore shipped to global destinations from 19 ports and 16 mining firms in Australia and Brazil rose 3.7% week-on-week in the Oct. 7-13 week after three straight weeks of declines, Chinese consultancy Mysteel said.
Meanwhile, China announced fresh stimulus measures for its ailing property sector, a key user of steel. China will expand a “white list” of housing projects eligible for financing and increase bank lending for such developments to 4 trillion yuan ($562 billion), Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ni Hong said. Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE tumbled, with coking coal and coke down 4.91% and 4.27%, respectively.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange posted losses. Rebar slid 3.45%, hot-rolled coil shed 2.77%, wire rod lost 1.35% and stainless steel dropped 1.03%.
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