Iron ore price set for weekly loss on caution over China demand prospects

Iron ore futures drifted lower on Friday and were headed for a weekly loss due to mounting concerns over demand prospects in top consumer China amid an escalating global trade war.

The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended daytime trade 0.33% lower at 757.5 yuan ($104.52) a metric ton, posting a weekly fall of 3.8%.

The contract hit its lowest since January 10 at 753.5 yuan a ton earlier in the session.

The benchmark April iron ore on the Singapore Exchange shed 0.85% to $99.65 a ton as of 0714 GMT, after hitting the lowest since March 11 at $99.05 a ton earlier. It is down 4.2% so far this week.

China is mulling setting up related funds to build a compensation system to eliminate outdated steel capacity, Qian Gang, chairman of CITIC Pacific Special Steel, was quoted as saying.

That was interpreted by some analysts as another signal that Beijing is determined and serious about addressing the over-capacity plaguing the steel industry this year, weighing on the appetite for steelmaking feedstocks.

CITIC did not immediately respond to Reuters‘ request for comments.

At its annual parliament meeting earlier this month, China said it would restructure its giant steel industry through output cuts without elaborating details.

But an obvious pick-up in near-term demand curbed loss on Friday.

Average daily hot metal output, typically used to gauge iron ore demand, climbed 2.5% week-on-week to the highest since August 2, 2024, at 2.36 million tons as of March 20, a survey from consultancy Mysteel showed.

Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE retreated, with coking coal and coke losing 1.8% and 1.76%, respectively.

Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange moved in a tight range. Rebar and hot-rolled coil were little changed, wire rod dipped 0.38%, and stainless steel lost 0.6%.

($1 = 7.2476 Chinese yuan)

(By Amy Lv and Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Eileen Soreng)