Lithium suppliers seek to rein in price discounts in 2025 talks
The past year has been torrid for lithium, as a global slowdown in the pace of EV adoption left the market saddled with a glut.
Iron ore futures prices rose on Monday, underpinned by growing bets top consumer China will unveil more stimulus in its third plenum this week after a batch of economic data disappointed investors.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended daytime trade 1.03% higher at 834 yuan ($114.83) a metric ton.
The benchmark August iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was up 0.69% at $108.75 a ton.
China’s economy slowed in the second quarter, data showed on Monday, as a protracted property downturn and job insecurity weighed on domestic demand, keeping alive expectations Beijing will need to unleash more stimulus.
The world’s second-largest economy grew 4.7% in the April-June period, official data showed, its slowest since the first quarter of 2023 and missing a 5.1% analysts’ forecast in a Reuters poll. Growth was also down from the 5.3% expansion in the previous quarter.
This came after Chinese bank lending jumped less than expected in June, while some key money gauges hit fresh record lows, data showed last Friday.
A highly anticipated third plenum that started from Monday will outline efforts to promote advanced manufacturing, manage a vast property crisis and boost domestic consumption, policy advisers say.
Also supporting prices of the key steelmaking ingredient is the resilient demand in the near term, according to analysts.
China produced a daily average of about 3.05 million tons of crude steel in June, the highest since April 2023, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE moved higher, with coking coal and coke up 0.9% and 2.3%, respectively.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange trended up. Rebar rose 0.9%, hot-rolled coil gained 0.8%, stainless steel ticked nearly 0.4% higher, while wire rod fell 0.4%.
Citi analysts expect the government to unleash another round of property-supporting measures after a meeting of the Politburo, a top decision-making of the ruling Communist Party expected in late July.
($1 = 7.2627 Chinese yuan)
(By Gabrielle Ng and Amy Lv; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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