Iron ore futures tumble in China and Singapore

Iron ore futures in China and Singapore slid as much as 4 percent on Friday before paring losses, pressured by worries global producers would continue to lift supply in a glut-hit market. Iron ore prices on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange hit the daily floor set by the bourse, touching a new all-time low and creating further downside risk for spot prices that this week fell to the lowest since records began in 2008.
The head of Rio Tinto , the world's second-largest iron ore miner, on Thursday dismissed as "harebrained" a suggestion by smaller rival Fortescue Metals Group that miners should cap output of the steelmaking material to boost prices.
"Rio Tinto's reaction definitely hit the market as it has no intention of cutting output in order to lift prices," said Li Wenjing, analyst at Industrial Futures in Shanghai.
"Fortescue is already standing on the edge of its breakeven price. And most domestic mills are losing money at this level as well."
The most-traded September iron ore contract on the Dalian exchange fell 4 percent to its downside limit of 414 yuan ($67) a tonne, the lowest for a most-active contract, before closing down 2.1 percent at 422 yuan.
On the Singapore Exchange, May iron ore dropped 4 percent to a session low of $50.90 per tonne, before cutting losses to trade at $52, down 1.8 percent.
Iron ore for immediate delivery to China dropped 1.3 percent to $54.80 a tonne on Thursday, according to data from The Steel Index (TSI). The benchmark hit $54.20 on Monday, the lowest since TSI began compiling prices in late 2008.
Three-quarters of China's domestic iron ore capacity is incurring losses, said Yang Jiasheng, chairman of the Metallurgical Mines Association of China, as a sustained price slump batters higher cost producers.
The price of iron ore has more than halved in the past 12 months amid a glut deepened by soaring output from low-cost mega miners from Australia and Brazil squeezing smaller suppliers out of the market.
Stocks of imported iron ore at Chinese ports have been stuck at or below the 100-million tonne mark since the start of the year and look set to drop further as falling prices drive away buyers.
The most-active October contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell as far as 2,407 yuan a tonne, its lowest ever, before paring losses to end at 2,477 yuan, down 0.9 percent.