(Adds background and context)
BEIJING, March 17 (Reuters) - China's state planner said
on Friday it will look at measures to curb "unreasonable" iron
ore prices, the latest in a series of warnings to the market to
try to cool surging prices.
The price monitoring centre of China's National Development
and Reform Commission (NDRC)recently visited Qingdao port in
eastern China and Tangshan port in northern China to investigate
port inventories of iron ore, storage fees and the market and
price situation, it said in a notice on its official Wechat
account.
It also urged iron ore trading firms to avoid hoarding and
inflating prices, adding that it was studying further measures.
The NDRC had already warned last week it may take steps to
curb iron ore prices after a four-month rally, but futures
continued to rise this week before dropping on Thursday on
concerns about limits on steel output this year.
The most-traded May iron ore futures contract on China's
Dalian Commodity Exchange ended Friday trade before
the notice was issued at 915 yuan($132.77) a tonne, up 0.4%. It
marked a month-on-month rise of 2.3% despite a 2.1% fall for the
week.
Meanwhile, on the Singapore Exchange, the steelmaking
ingredient's benchmark April contract was up 1.01% at
$130.45 a tonne as of 1035 GMT, a rise of 3.8% month on month.
($1 = 6.8915 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Amy Lv and Dominique Patton in Beijing; Editing
by Toby Chopra and Susan Fenton)
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