SINGAPORE- Iron ore futures prices traded within a narrow range on Wednesday, as investors weighed output cuts in the Chinese steel sector against seasonal demand for the steelmaking ingredient.
The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) traded 0.06 percent lower at 778 yuan ($107.11) a metric ton.
The benchmark April iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 0.07 percent higher at $101.65 a ton.
Rizhao Iron & Steel plans to complete the dismantling of four 1,080 cubic meter blast furnaces in early April, removing annual hot metal output of 1.9 million tons, according to consultancy Fubao and a person familiar with the matter.
Rizhao Steel did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
This comes as several steel makers in China’s Xinjiang region began production cuts from Monday, local reports said, after Beijing earlier stated its intent to curb capacity in an industry long plagued by overcapacity.
Still, key steel enterprises produced 2.75 million tons of crude steel per day in March so far, marking a monthly increase of 1.6 percent, said broker Hexun Futures, citing statistics from the China Iron and Steel Association.
