BEIJING- Dalian iron ore futures rose for a third consecutive session on Tuesday, as high hot metal output and relatively low portside inventories underpinned the steelmaking ingredient.
The most-traded September iron ore on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) was up 1.27 percent at 718.5 yuan ($103.95) a ton.
“Comparatively high hot metal output at the moment provided some support to iron ore demand,” analysts at Huatai Futures said in a morning note.
Hot metal is a blast furnace product and its output is often used to gauge iron ore demand.
The average daily hot metal output among the surveyed 247 Chinese steel mills stood at 2.42 million tons last week, up 0.25 percent year-on-year but down 0.83 percent month-on-month, data from consultancy Mysteel showed.
“It seems that mills are increasingly less interested in taking initiative to cut their (steel) output, given that they could still make some money based on current production costs.
Therefore, demand will be stable in the short term,” analysts at Sinosteel Futures said in a note. – Reuters
