($1 = 6.9682 yuan) (Reporting by Amy Lv and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing by Varun H K)
BEIJING, March 9 (Reuters) - Dalian and Singapore iron
ore futures fell on Thursday amid growing caution following a
slowdown in China's consumer inflation in February, while
transaction volumes of construction steel products also
contracted.
China's consumer price index for the month was 1.0% higher
than a year earlier, against a 2.1% annual rise in January, as
consumers remained cautious despite the abandoning of tough
pandemic controls late last year, data from National Bureau of
Statistics showed.
Meanwhile, China's daily transaction volumes of construction
steel products fell 22.61% on March 8 from the day before to
147,579 tonnes, data from consultancy Mysteel showed.
The most-traded May iron ore futures contract on China's
Dalian Commodity Exchange ended 0.16% lower at 909.5
yuan ($130.52) a tonne as of 0215 GMT.
On the Singapore Exchange, the benchmark April iron ore was at $125.65 a tonne, down 0.94%.
"It's just a normal downward correction, reflecting that
people are concerned about demand after April," said Yu Chen, a
Shanghai-based senior iron ore analyst at Mysteel.
Similarly, other steelmaking ingredients including coking
coal and coke, as well as steel products, also recorded losses.
Coking coal dipped 1.9% and coke fell
2.38%.
Rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange declined
0.42% to 4,233 yuan a tonne, hot-rolled coil was
little changed, wire rod lost 0.73%, and stainless
steel moved down 0.72%.
Despite the weakness in the ferrous market, some analysts
and traders remained optimistic about the recovery in the
downstream demand in the near term.
The downstream steel demand has been continuously
recovering, lending persistent support to the ferrous market in
the short run, said Yu.
"We believe fundamentals [of the ferrous market] will be
stable or in line with expectations in the short term. And the
hot metal output will gradually peak in March," said Yao
Xinying, a Shanghai-based research director of the ferrous
market at consultancy SMM.
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