BEIJING — Iron ore futures prices extended their decline into a second straight session on Tuesday, dragged by expectations of growing supply, although resilient demand from top consumer China and hopes of easing Sino-US trade tensions curbed losses.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) dipped 0.28 percent to 702.5 yuan ($97.79) a metric ton.
The benchmark July iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was down 0.21 percent to $94.5 a ton.
Shipments of the key steelmaking ingredient from top suppliers Australia and Brazil climbed nearly 2 percent from the prior week to 29.19 million tons in the week as of June 8, the highest level for a single week since December, data from consultancy Mysteel showed.
Iron ore imports in June are set to rise as mills have increased the usage of imported cargoes due to their price competitiveness and as miners will ramp up shipments by June-end to achieve quarterly targets, analysts at consultancy Shanghai Metals Market said in a note.
“Given that steel margins remained healthy, hot metal output is likely to consolidate at a high level,” analysts at Hongyuan Futures said in a note.
Hot metal output is typically used to gauge iron ore demand, with the daily average at 2.42 million tons as of June 5, 2.6 percent higher than the same period a year before, according to Mysteel data.
