BEIJING- Iron ore futures rose for a second straight session on Thursday, underpinned by heightened expectations of growing demand in top consumer China on the back of improved downstream demand and steel margins.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended morning trade 3.36 percent higher at 876.5 yuan ($121.13) a metric ton, following a rise of more than 4 percent a day before.
The benchmark May iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 1.23 percent higher at $116.8 a ton, after climbing more than 5 percent on Wednesday.
“Driver for this round of price rally is a quicker-than-expected destock of construction steel products… and this also lifted expectations of production restarts and replenishment of raw materials among steelmakers,” analysts at Jinrui Futures said in a note.
“Steel demand will increase further with the accelerated pace of special bond issuance and further progress of the equipment upgrade in the second quarter.”
