Iron ore prices continued to drop on Tuesday due to increasing domestic supply in China and ongoing concerns about demand, which have been exacerbated by a prolonged downturn in the property market, leading to a decline in investor confidence., benchmark 62% Fe fines imported into Northern China fell 1.43% on Tuesday, to $123.04 per tonne.The most-traded January iron ore on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trading 0.69% lower at 862.5 yuan a metric ton, after falling 0.
The benchmark October iron ore on the Singapore Exchange fell 0.87% to $120.7 a ton as of 0655 GMT, recouping some losses from earlier the session and staying above the psychological level of $120 a ton. “We see it as normal downward correction after touching the resistance level,” said Cheng Peng, a Beijing-based analyst at Sinosteel Futures.Higher domestic supply weighed on the key steelmaking ingredient, with output of run of mine totaling 659.17 million tons in the Jan-Aug period, up 7% year-on-year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Monday.
Concerns over the property market also persisted, despite a temporary relief after embattled Chinese developer Country Garden won approval from creditors to extend repayment on another onshore bond.