BEIJING, March 7 (Reuters) - Dalian and Singapore iron
ore futures rose on Tuesday, as warmer weather raised
expectations for a pickup in steel demand and the market focused
on improving fundamentals.
The most-traded May iron ore contract on China's Dalian
Commodity Exchange (DCE) was up 1.11% at 907.5 yuan
($130.86) a tonne, as of 0200 GMT, after a 2.13% fall on Monday.
On the Singapore Exchange, the benchmark April iron ore was up 1.41% at $126.05 a tonne.
"The rise in (iron ore) prices is primarily driven by
expectation of continuously recovering downstream (steel)
demand," said Pei Hao, a Shanghai-based senior analyst from FIS,
an international brokerage firm.
The market had been under pressure on concerns that
authorities could take action to curb rising prices following a
government meeting on Friday.
"Now, it seems that the fundamental factors have begun to
play a dominant role again," said Pei.
The average capacity utilisation rate of concrete and
transaction volumes of construction steel products have
increased recently, indicating a recovery in the downstream
steel consumption sectors, Everbright Futures said in a note.
China was expected to have produced approximately 2.69
million tonnes of crude steel per day over Feb. 21-28, a rise of
5.16% from the previous 10-day period, the China Iron and Steel
Association said on its official website on March 6.
Other steel-making raw materials coking coal and coke also
managed to record some gains. Coking coal rose 0.2% and
coke nudged up by 0.09%. Some domestic coking plants
raised their coke offer prices by 100 yuan a tonne from March 7,
consultancy Mysteel said in a report.
Rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange climbed
0.64% to 4,240 yuan a tonne, hot-rolled coil gained
0.44% and wire rod rose 0.71%. Stainless steel fell 0.31%.
($1 = 6.9347 yuan)
(Reporting by Amy Lv and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing
by Subhranshu Sahu)
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