BEIJING: Iron ore futures prices rose for a third straight session on Wednesday, supported by resilient steel demand and persistent hopes of further economic stimulus in top consumer China. Lingering high portside stocks capped gains, however.

The most-traded January iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended morning trade 0.98% higher at 773.5 yuan ($106.82) a metric ton.

Daily transaction volumes of construction steel products in China climbed for a third-consecutive session by 0.67% to 135,100 tons on Tuesday, data from consultancy Mysteel showed. Benchmark December iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was little changed at $101.1 a ton, as of 0335 GMT.

Steel consumption typically contracts in November when outdoor construction slows in colder northern regions, but this month it was offset by demand in the warmer south and east. Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange recorded gains. Rebar added 0.85%, hot-rolled coil rose 0.43%, wire rod ticked 0.47% higher and stainless steel nudged up 0.19%. “The ore price increase was mainly driven by improved macro sentiment with market participants expecting Beijing to roll out further fiscal stimulus in an important meeting in December,” analysts at Galaxy Futures said in a note.

“From the fundamental perspective, supply pressure will ease with shipments from high-cost miners seeing an annual fall while relatively high hot metal output supported ore consumption.”

China’s domestically produced run-of-mine, which is raw mined material, slid by 4.1% from the year before to 86.45 million tons in October, official data showed on Tuesday.

Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE advanced, with coking coal and coke up 0.35% and 0.34%, respectively. China left benchmark lending rates unchanged at the monthly fixing on Wednesday, after lenders slashed the rates by higher-than-expected margins last month to revive economic activity.