BEIJING- Iron ore futures rebounded on Wednesday, as better-than-expected industrial profits data in top consumer China buoyed sentiment, although lingering demand concerns amid persistent weakness in the country’s crisis-hit property market remained a headwind.
The most-traded January iron ore on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) climbed 0.77 percent to 848 yuan ($116.17) a metric ton.
The benchmark October iron ore on the Singapore Exchange rose 1.3 percent to $116.5 a ton.
Profits at China’s industrial firms in August surged 17.2 percent year-on-year, compared to a 6.7 percent decline in July, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Wednesday.
China’s central bank said on Wednesday it would implement monetary policy in a “precise and forceful” manner to support economic recovery.
The key steelmaking ingredient recouped some losses recorded in the previous two sessions ahead of the upcoming holiday break after a flurry of pre-holiday restocking ended.
Markets in top steel producer China will be closed for holidays during Sept. 29-Oct. 6.
The market is still vulnerable to shrinking steel margins and “renewed debt problems in China’s property developers”, analysts at ANZ bank said in a note. – Reuters
