FILE PHOTO: An autonomous truck readies to pick up a load of iron ore
| Photo Credit:
MELANIE BURTON
Iron ore futures slipped on Friday, on track for a weekly loss, as property demand in China weakened.
The most-traded January iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) traded 1.27 per cent lower at 774.5 yuan ($107.83) a metric ton, as of 0328 GMT on Friday. The contract has lost 1.34 per cent so far this week.
The benchmark September iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 0.14 per cent lower at $101.95 a ton. The contract has lost 0.2 per cent so far this week.
China’s crude steel output dipped to a seven-month low in July, down 4 per cent from June and marking a second straight monthly decline. The decline reflects ongoing efforts to curb overcapacity, while high temperatures and heavy rainfall restricted outdoor construction activity.
China’s new home prices fell 0.3 per cent from the previous month in July, with demand remaining muted despite more local governments rolling out incentives for homebuying. At the same time, property investment declined 12 per cent in the first seven months of the year from a year earlier.
However, the year-on-year declines are narrowing across tier-one, tier-two, and tier-three cities. The central government has maintained calls to stabilise the market in recent months, signalling the potential for further policy support.
Meanwhile, a pullback in steel output in recent months has improved the profitability of the sector, pushing margins for steel mills into positive territory and giving iron ore prices room to push higher, ANZ analysts said.
Beijing’s renewed focus on reducing overcapacity could see this rally being sustained, providing further support to iron ore prices, ANZ said.
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE fell, with coking coal and coke down 0.45% and 0.03%, respectively.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange all lost ground. Rebar eased 0.81 per cent, hot-rolled coil dipped 0.35 per cent , wire rod fell 0.7 per cent and stainless steel was down 0.69 per cent.
Published on August 15, 2025