By Enrico Dela Cruz
March 10 (Reuters) - Iron ore futures rose on Friday, with
the Dalian benchmark price on track for a fifth consecutive
weekly gain on optimism around China's steel demand as the
country entered its peak spring construction season.
The upbeat mood lifted construction steel rebar's benchmark
price in China, the world's biggest steel producer, to its
strongest since June, with other steelmaking ingredients also
pushing higher.
Iron ore's most-traded May contract on China's Dalian
Commodity Exchange rose as much as 2.6% to a
contract-high 932.50 yuan ($133.92) a tonne in early trade. It
was up more than 2% for the week.
On the Singapore Exchange, the steelmaking ingredient's
benchmark April contract climbed 2.3% to $130.55 a tonne, the
highest since Feb. 21.
"Iron ore futures pushed higher amid the prospect of a busy
construction period in China," ANZ commodity strategists said in
a note.
Traders continued to defy warnings from Chinese regulators
against excessive price speculation on iron ore, with sentiment
also bullish ahead of next week's set of activity data, which
are expected to show the world's second-largest economy
rebounding after dropping its stringent zero-COVID policy.
"China will release two months' worth (January and February)
of activity data on Wednesday, and we should see an approximate
picture of economic growth in the first quarter," ING economists
said.
"Home prices should be stable in the first two months but
should pick up more in the coming quarters as there are still
down payments on deposit accounts waiting for confidence in the
housing market to return."
Rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was up 1.4%,
as of 0230 GMT, hot-rolled coil rose 1.3%, and wire
rod climbed 1.2%. Stainless steel dipped
0.9%.
Coking coal and coke were up 1.1% and
2.3%, respectively, on the Dalian exchange.
(Reporting by Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz in Manila; Editing
by Rashmi Aich)
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