China stainless steel mogul fights to avoid a second collapse
A debt crisis is threatening the future of one of the world’s top stainless steel producers, Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry.
Iron ore prices rebounded on Tuesday as hopes resurfaced for more stimulus from policymakers in China.
According to Fastmarkets, benchmark 62% Fe fines imported into Northern China rose 0.37%, to $137.60 per ton.
The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange ended daytime trading 1.52% higher at 969.5 yuan ($135.12) a metric ton, following a fall of 0.37% a day before.
The benchmark January iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was up 0.63% at $135.85 a ton, as of 0758 GMT, surrendering some earlier gains after hitting an intraday high at $136.35 a ton, the highest since February.
China’s leaders started a closed-door meeting on Monday to discuss economic targets and map out stimulus plans for 2024, Reuters reported, citing four sources familiar with the matter.
This came after China’s consumer price index in November dropped 0.5%, both from a year earlier and compared with October, official data showed. This is a deeper fall compared to a Reuters poll of 0.1% declines both year-on-year and month-on-month.
Supporting the prices of the key steelmaking ingredient is also the expectation of a wave of winter stocking among mills with low raw material inventories.
“Ore consumption will maintain at a relatively high level, in part due to the lingering expectation of winter stocking for raw materials,” analysts at Huatai Futures said in a note.
(With files from Reuters)
