BEIJING- Iron ore futures were largely range-bound on Thursday, as traders preferred to take a watchful stance ahead of the upcoming holiday break starting from Sept. 29 in top consumer China.
Prices of the key steelmaking ingredient ended the week with a slight weakness as demand concerns, due to lingering property woes in the world’s largest steel producer and consumer, dominated.
The most-traded January iron ore on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) climbed 0.18 percent to 846 yuan ($115.70) a metric ton, recording a fall of 1.1 percent within the week.
The benchmark October iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 0.64 percent lower at $115.8 a ton, a drop of 0.3 percent within the week.
“Prices of raw materials, including iron ore, will be under downward pressure as long as the steel market remains weak,” said Cheng Peng, a Beijing-based analyst at Sinosteel Futures.
“For the moment, prices are changing within a relatively narrow range, and this will possibly last until mid-November.”
Analysts at the National Australia Bank said in a note that they expected to see downside risk to prices at current levels.
