Iron ore futures prices dipped on Friday, but logged their third straight weekly gain on recent infrastructure demand.

The most-traded January iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) closed daytime trade 0.19% lower at 794 yuan ($112.18) a metric ton. The contract gained 1.14% this week.

The benchmark December iron ore (SZZFZ5) on the Singapore Exchange was 0.89% lower at $105.75 a ton, as of 0717 GMT. The contract is up 1.73% so far in the week.

Infrastructure demand has increased recently, leading to continued improvement in apparent demand for steel, with prices expected to follow fundamentals in the short term, said Chinese broker Galaxy Futures.

Inventories of the five major carbon steel products held by the Chinese steel mills dipped for the seventh straight week by 2.5% to 3.9 million tons, as of Thursday, hitting the lowest level since late January, data from Chinese consultancy Mysteel showed.

Total stockpiles of iron ore in ports across China dipped 0.42% week-on-week to around 139 million tons, as of November 28, according to SteelHome data.

On the supply side, shipments from top producers Australia and Brazil both decreased, while the number of ships in port was 115, a decrease of 8 month-on-month, said Chinese broker Everbright Futures.

Iron ore futures softened recently on worries over China’s property sector, but losses were limited as Bloomberg reported that policymakers might roll out fresh support measures, said analysts from ANZ.

Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE lost ground, with coking coal NYMEX:ACT1! and coke (DCJcv1) down 0.79% and 1.99%, respectively.

Increased coal supply and continued inventory accumulation at coal mines have led to an accelerated decline in coking coal and coke prices recently, Galaxy said in the note.

Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mostly up. Rebar RBF1! firmed 0.71%, hot-rolled coil EHR1! climbed 0.27%, and wire rod (SWRcv1) gained 0.33%, while stainless steel HRC1! dipped 0.32%.
Source: Reuters