The most-traded May iron ore futures contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) traded 0.77% higher at 911.5 yuan ($130.74)a tonne, as of 0200 GMT, following a rise of 1.34% on Tuesday. "Both supply and demand [of steel products] continue to recover," analysts at Haitong Futures said in a note. On the Singapore Exchange, the benchmark April iron ore was at $126.6 a tonne, down 0.28%. "Hawkish comments from central bankers weighed on sentiment across markets. The subsequent risk off tone saw commodities come under pressure," analysts at ANZ bank said in a note. China imported 194 million tonnes of iron ore in the first two months of 2023, a year-on-year rise of 7.3%, customs data showed on Tuesday, and the highest ever for the two months combined, according to Reuters calculations. Though futures prices of the other steelmaking ingredients -coking coal and coke - showed signs of weakening, analysts believe fundamentals will lend some support to spot prices in the near term.
Coking coal edged down 0.1% and coke fell 0.63%.
Rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange grew 0.45% to 4,257 yuan a tonne, hot-rolled coil gained 0.21%, wire rod nudged up 0.04%.
"The significant increase in exports eased supply
pressure in the domestic market to some degree. Also, it
boosted mills' confidence in holding their prices firm,"
analysts at Everbright Futures said in a note.
Stainless steel slid 2.09%.
($1 = 6.9717 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Amy Lv and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing
by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
