SINGAPORE- Dalian iron ore futures prices snapped a four-day winning streak on Monday as increasing levies on Chinese steel dampened demand prospects for the key steelmaking ingredient, though decreasing portside inventories in China limited the fall.
The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) traded 0.89 percent lower at 831.5 yuan ($114.87) a metric ton.
The benchmark March iron ore on the Singapore Exchange ticked 0.22 percent lower at $108.25 a ton.
Vietnam will impose a temporary anti-dumping levy of up to 27.83 percent on some steel products from China, according to a trade ministry document seen by Reuters.
The move comes after US President Donald Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on all steel imports earlier this month, with South Korea following suit and provisionally imposing tariffs on Chinese steel plates last week.
“Production among Chinese blast furnace steel producers continued edging down as more mills started regular maintenance works,” said Chinese consultancy Mysteel.
The capacity utilization rate of the blast furnace steel mills surveyed decreased for a second straight week, with daily hot metal production decreasing 0.21 percent on-week to 2.28 million as of February 20, Mysteel data showed.
Hot metal output is typically used to gauge iron ore demand.
