($1 = 6.9060 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Amy Lv and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing by Varun H K)
BEIJING, March 6 (Reuters) - Dalian and Singapore iron
ore futures weakened on Monday after China's state planner said
last week it had sought expert advice on policy measures to deal
with the recent rapid rise in prices of the raw material.
The most-traded May iron ore futures contact on China's
Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) traded 3.16% lower at
887.5 yuan ($128.51)a tonne as of 0214 GMT.
Meanwhile, on the Singapore Exchange, the benchmark April
iron ore contract traded at $121.7 a tonne, down 2.94%.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said
late on Friday that its price monitoring unit had met with
experts who said rising prices were driven by speculation, and
suggested authorities should strengthen market supervision.
They also advised "cracking down" on the spreading of
misleading pricing information, hoarding and speculation,
according to the post on NDRC's official Wechat account.
"Some market participants with [iron ore] long positions
liquidated their positions today to lock profits because of
concerns that prices may face continued downward pressure
following the news from NDRC", said Huang Jing, an iron ore
trader from Shanghai Yongjiu, a domestic trading agency.
Also, the northern Chinese city of Tangshan, the country's
top steelmaking hub, said on Saturday that it would initiate
another round of level 2 emergency response from March 4 to
handle the forecast heavy air pollution.
Some local steel producers have been impacted by the move,
consultancy Mysteel said in a report, without giving details.
The emergency actions typically require steel plants to curb
production.
It is the second time in a fortnight that Tangshan has
implemented pollution measures.
Other steelmaking ingredients - coking coal and coke - as
well as downstream steel products, also registered losses.
Coking coal slid 1.67% and coke dipped 1.88%.
Rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost 1.55%
to 4,183 yuan a tonne, hot-rolled coil declined 1.01%,
wire rod fell 1.25%. Stainless steel inched
up 0.09%.
China's decision to set a modest 5% economic growth target
for 2023, revealed at Sunday's parliament opening, may also have
knocked some of the optimism in commodity markets.
The lower-than-expected target means that macroeconomic
stimulus policies this year may not be as strong as previously
expected, analysts at Citic Futures said in a note.
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