Steel rebar and hot-rolled coil futures in China fell on Friday, posting losses for the week, as rising output at mills outweighed the destocking pace of inventories that continued to remain at elevated levels.
While steel products held by traders in China fell 5.7% to 20.1 million tonnes as of Thursday compared with the previous week, Mysteel consultancy's data showed utilisation rates at blast furnaces in 247 mills rose for a seventh week to 80.59%.
Construction rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, for October delivery, closed down 0.4% at 3,343 yuan ($472.39) per tonne. It fell 1.1% for the week.
Hot-rolled coil, used in the manufacturing sector, slipped 0.2% to 3,187 yuan a tonne, marking a weekly loss of 1.5%.
Iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange for the most-active September contract, ended down 0.4% at 607 yuan a tonne.
But Fitch Solutions expects iron ore prices to remain resilient, compared with other metals, despite disruptions that include the coronavirus pandemic and oil collapse.
"Iron ore supply issues remain at the fore... optimism over Chinese stimulus feeding through the construction industry and ferrous metals demand will continue to support prices," it wrote in a note.
Spot prices of iron ore with 62% iron content for delivery to China rose to $86 per tonne on Thursday.
Shanghai stainless steel futures, for June delivery, fell 0.6% to 12,940 yuan a tonne.
Dalian coking coal dropped 1.1% to 1,093 yuan a tonne, while coke rose 0.8% to 1,715 yuan a tonne.
More than 2.64 million people have been reported to be infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 184,910 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
China's central bank cut the interest rate on its targeted medium-term lending facility (TMLF), following similar reductions to borrowing costs on other liquidity tools in the past few weeks to support the economy.
Hyundai Steel reported 29.7 billion won ($24.06 million) operating loss in the first quarter compared with year earlier.
South Korean steelmaker POSCO reported a 41.4% fall in first-quarter operating profit as the pandemic curbed global steel demand, beating market estimates.
Global miner Anglo American on Thursday cut its capital expenditure guidance for the year by about $1 billion and said it would cut costs to weather the impact of the coronavirus.
China will cut its subsidies on new energy vehicles (NEVs) by 10% this year, and will expand government purchases of NEVs, the finance ministry said on Thursday.
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