BEIJING: Iron ore futures slipped on Friday and were headed for a second weekly loss weighed down by the lingering Sino-US trade tensions, but resilient demand, upbeat economic data and hopes of more stimulus from top consumer China cushioned the fall.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) dropped 1.76% to 699 yuan ($95.80) a metric ton, its lowest since April 11.
It registered a weekly drop of 0.7%. The benchmark May iron ore on the Singapore Exchange fell 0.88% to $96.95 a ton as of 0706 GMT, posting a 0.2% decline so far this week. Even as US President Donald Trump signalled a potential end to the tit-for-tat tariff hikes between the US and China that shocked markets, all eyes are on more progressive signs of easing trade tensions between the two superpowers. Goldman Sachs analysts forecast iron ore prices to fall to $90 by the fourth quarter and $80 by the fourth quarter of 2026, citing a return to surplus from the second half of the year.
“We expect tariffs to weigh on both China domestic demand and steel exports over the remainder of the year,” they said, lowering their ex-China seaborne ore demand growth forecast to 3% from previous 5%. But near-term ore demand remained firm, limiting price loss. A Mysteel survey showed average daily hot metal output, a gauge of iron ore consumption, steadied at a nearly 17-month high of 2.4 million tons on Thursday.
Also, a raft of better-than-expected Chinese data, coupled with hopes of Beijing unveiling more measures to counter the US tariff shocks, boosted sentiment.
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