BEIJING- Iron ore futures extended their climb for a second session on Wednesday, supported by a softer US dollar and hopes of sustained short-term demand in top consumer China, although lingering high inventories limited gains.
The most-traded September iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) was up 0.4 percent at 830.5 yuan ($114.46) a metric ton.
The benchmark July iron ore on the Singapore Exchange climbed 1.4 percent to $107.9 a ton.
“The market lacks confidence in crude steel control this year, but it has strong expectations on an improved economy in the second half of the year, which partly explained why iron ore could be so resilient,” analysts at Jinrui said in a note.
Short-term ore demand still found some support from a relatively high level of hot metal production, analysts at Hongyuan said in a note.
Average daily hot metal output among steelmakers surveyed climbed by 1.5 percent on the week to 2.39 million tons, as of June 14, the highest since November 2023, data from consultancy Mysteel showed, beating market expectations.
A weaker dollar following slower growth in retail sales also lent broad support to commodities including steel and iron ore.
