BEIJING: Prices of iron ore futures slid on Monday to their lowest levels in one week, as faltering near-term demand and bleak property data in top consumer China weighed on sentiment.
The most-traded January iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended morning trade 0.69% lower at 793 yuan ($108.94) a metric ton. It hit the lowest level since Dec. 6 at 788 yuan a ton earlier in the session.
The benchmark January iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 0.72% lower at $104.05 a ton, as of 0354 GMT, after touching the lowest since Dec. 9 at $103.2 a ton earlier. China’s crude steel output last month fell 4.3% from October, dampened by tighter margins and seasonally weakening downstream steel consumption, while analysts expect December volume to fall further. Lower steel output means fewer consumption needs for raw materials including iron ore.
Property investment in China fell 10.4% in the first 11 months of 2024 from a year earlier, after dropping 10.3% in January-October, National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Monday. China’s two-day Central Economic Work Conference last week lacked details on sector-wide support, and left the market disappointed, ANZ analysts said.
“The weight of macro-economic expectations is falling during trading with focus gradually shifting to industrial fundamentals,” analysts at Sinosteel Futures said in a note. Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE retreated, with coking coal and coke down 3.38% and 2.48%, respectively.
Most steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost ground. Rebar dipped 0.74%, hot-rolled coil dropped 0.68%, stainless steel fell 0.95% while wire rod added 0.25%.
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