Iron ore gains on China stimulus bets, active restocking

Dalian and Singapore iron ore futures climbed on Tuesday, as the prospects of further economic stimulus from China and active post-holiday restocking in some mills boosted trader sentiment.

China will roll out more effective policy measures to expand domestic demand, Premier Li Qiang told delegates at a World Economic Forum summit in Tianjin.

This statement came after China’s National Development and Reform Commission held a meeting on Monday in which it encouraged financial institutions to expand the issuance of medium- and long-term loans to the manufacturing industry, lifting sentiment to some degree, according to analysts.

The market has been expecting a raft of supportive measures to be announced at the politburo meeting to be held in late-July to spur the patchy post-pandemic economic recovery in China.

Many mills returned to the portside market to purchase iron ore on Monday to meet production needs, with daily transaction volumes surging 126% to 961,000 metric tons day-on-day, data from consultancy Mysteel showed.

The most-traded September iron ore on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) DCIOcv1 ended daytime trading 4.11% higher at 824 yuan ($114.24) per ton, the highest since March 16.

The benchmark July iron ore SZZFN3 on the Singapore Exchange was 3.52% higher at $112.9 per ton, as of 0702 GMT, the highest since June 20.

The remaining high level of hot metal output, coupled with the insufficient supply of steel scrap, provided relatively strong support to iron ore consumption, analysts at Huatai Futures said in a note.

Coking coal DJMcv1 and coke DCJcv1 – the other steelmaking ingredients – climbed 2.34% and 2.04%, respectively.

Re-rollers in China’s top steelmaking hub – Tangshan city – were required to suspend production from Monday in response to the forecast of air pollution in the coming days, analyst at Mysteel said in a report.

Analysts, however, dialled down the possible impact of the steel production reduction on the steel market, which has been clouded by excessive supply and seasonally weak demand.

Rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SRBcv1 gained 2.08%, hot-rolled coil SHHCcv1 rose 2.4%, wire rod SWRcv1 added 3.15% while stainless steel SHSScv1 ticked up 0.14%.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Amy Lv and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)