Iron ore falls on demand concerns, high stocks
Recasts, updates prices
BEIJING, July 8 (Reuters) -Iron ore futures slid on Monday as weak demand and high inventories in top consumer China weighed on the key steelmaking ingredient.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) DCIOcv1 ended day-time trade 3.3% lower at 825.50 yuan ($113.56) a metric ton.
The benchmark August iron ore SZZFQ4 on the Singapore Exchange was 1.8% lower at $108.4 a ton as of 0833 GMT.
The declines came after a weekly gain, supported by dovish comments from the U.S. Federal Reserve and investors' hopes of additional measures to boost China's economy from a key meeting on July 15-18.
However, the real supply and demand situation is not improving and therefore the higher price level touched last week would be hard to sustain, said analysts at Xinhu Futures, citing the lower-than-expected demand for finished steel products recently.
Amid weaker buying from steel mills, port inventories rose.
Inventories at major ports in China rose to 150 million tons on Friday, 25% higher compared with the beginning of this year and 18% higher compared with the same time a year earlier, data by information provider Mysteel showed.
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE moved lower, with coking coal DJMcv1 and coke DCJcv1 down 1.6% and 2.7%, respectively.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange mostly trended down. Rebar SRBcv1 lost 2.3%, hot-rolled coil SHHCcv1 slipped 1.9%, wire rod SWRcv1 dropped 2.3%, while stainless steel SHSScv1 was little moved.
($1 = 7.2696 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Siyi Liu and Colleen Howe; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Mrigank Dhaniwala
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
