China's Shanghai steel futures rose on Friday, with rebar rebounding while hot-rolled coil extended gains as falling inventory suggested firm demand.
The most-active construction steel rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for January 2020 delivery, closed up 1.2% at 3,344 yuan a tonne, the highest in nine days.
Futures for Shanghai hot-rolled coil steel, used in cars and home appliances, extended gains to a fourth session. It ended up 0.8% at 3,360 yuan.
Steel product inventories in China notched up a third weekly decline in the week to Oct. 25, down 600,000 tonnes from the previous week at 9.85 million tonnes, marking the lowest level since mid-January, data compiled by Mysteel consultancy showed.
The most-traded iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, for January 2020 delivery, rose 3% in the week ended Oct. 25, the biggest rise since Sept. 16. It closed up 2.1% at 635 yuan a tonne on Friday.
The jump in iron ore prices came after Brazilian miner Vale SA released lower-than-expected quarterly earnings as the iron ore exporter tries to overhaul its operations after a deadly dam collapse.
Meanwhile, demand for iron ore was also rekindled as China's top steelmaking city Tangshan lifted its orange smog alert from late Thursday.
Shanghai stainless steel future dropped 0.6% to 14,960 yuan a tonne. Other steelmaking materials gained, with Dalian coking coal edging up 0.3% to 1,258 yuan a tonne and Dalian coke rising 1.2% to 1,794 yuan.
Benchmark spot 62% iron ore cargoes were unchanged at $86.5 a tonne on Thursday from a day earlier.Brazil's Vale said it expected to recover 50 million tonnes in iron ore capacity in 2020-2021.
A fire at a steel mill in China's top steelmaking Hebei province, with annual capacity at 2 million tonnes, killed 7 people on Thursday.
Top US and Chinese trade officials will discuss plans on Friday for China to buy more US farm products, but in return, Beijing will request cancellation of some planned and existing US tariffs on Chinese imports, people briefed on the talks told Reuters.
China commercial banks sold a net $3.4 billion of foreign exchange in September, compared with net sales of $5.4 billion in August, the foreign exchange regulator said.
Source : https://www.brecorder.com