China’s steel demand shifts to higher-grade ore, Rio Tinto exec says
"The demand for high grade ore continues to be strong," chief commercial officer Bold Baatar said.
Copper prices rose on Tuesday on optimism after data showed that the rapid rise in consumer prices is slowing in the US.
Copper for delivery in March rose 3.1% on the Comex market in New York, touching $3.92 per pound or $8,624 per tonne.
[Click here for an interactive chart of copper prices]
The most-traded January copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dipped 0.3% to 66,070 yuan ($9,466.16) a tonne.
US inflation was 7.1% over the 12 months to the end of November, dropping from 7.7% in October, figures from the US Labour department show.
That was the slowest pace in nearly a year and better than analysts expected.
Metals markets have gained recently on hopes that US inflation has peaked, allowing the central bank to ease its pace of interest rate hikes.
Weighing on the market was uncertainty in China after it recently began relaxing covid restrictions.
“We reckon that the incoming migration around the Chinese New Year holiday in late January could bring about an unprecedented spread of covid,” Nomura Chief China Economist Ting Lu said.
Companies in China were straining to keep operations running normally amid a rise in infections.
“I think the market is confused as to how to approach the short-term outlook on China. On one hand, prices are supported because it’s reopening, but worried that we may go through a period with a massive spike of cases,” Hansen said.
(With files from Reuters)
