China iron ore prices lead industrial commodities lower with 6.7% dip

The price of iron ore in China fell as much as 6.7 per cent on Monday as markets reacted to data showing port inventories of the steel-making ingredient rose again last week.

Iron ore futures contracts traded on the Dalian Commodity Exchange had recovered slightly in afternoon trading to be down 6 per cent at Rmb545.5 per metric tonne.

The drop puts the price of iron ore at the lowest level since January 10 and represents a fall of 17.6 per cent from the most recent intraday peak of Rmb661, seen on on March 16.

The fall comes after iron ore inventories at China’s ports rose for the second week running – and at a faster pace – to a record 132.5m tons, according to figures published on Friday by Shanghai Steelhome, a steel market data platform.

Other hard commodities were faring badly in China on Monday as well: Shanghai copper futures were down 1.8 per cent and futures in Dalian for coking coal, used in steel making, dropped 3.8 per cent.

Futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange for thermal coal, used to generate energy, were down just 0.5 per cent.