Dalian iron ore futures climbed to their highest levels in 15 weeks on Thursday, underpinned by renewed optimism around prospects of further stimulus to support China’s faltering economic recovery, but benchmark prices in Singapore retreated.
The steelmaking ingredient’s most-traded September contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange rose as much as 1.4 percent to 835 yuan ($115.26) per metric ton, its strongest since March 16.
On the Singapore Exchange, however, the benchmark July iron ore contract was down 0.1 percent at $113.25 per metric ton, after climbing over the past two days.
Other steelmaking ingredients also rose, with coking coal and coke on the Dalian exchange up 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange advanced, with rebar rising by 0.6 percent, hot-rolled coil by 0.2 percent, wire rod also up by 0.6 percent, while stainless steel dipped 1.2 percent.
Premier Li Qiang said on Tuesday China will roll out more effective policy measures to expand domestic demand, even as he pointed out that domestic economic growth has picked up in the current quarter.
But market reaction to China’s stimulus signals has been mixed, with some traders pondering how far Beijing is willing to go in supporting particularly the struggling property sector, and with economic indicators in the first five months of 2023 generally disappointing.
