Iron Ore futures at the Dalian Commodity Exchange erased Monday’s losses resulting from the announced production curbs to control air pollution levels in Tangshan city.

On Tuesday, January 25, 2022, the most-traded DCE May contract ended daytime trading around 1.4% higher at 766.50 yuan a tonne. A similar trend was witnessed on the Singapore Exchange, where the most-active March contract was up 3.81% at $138 a tonne by 1233 GMT.

Positive expectations over demand remaining stable after Lunar Year holidays as some mills begin seeking March-laycan cargoes and possible supply disruptions due to labour shortages at Australian miners kept futures poised for further gains according to market participants.

Meanwhile., in the physical market activity slowed down today as mills begin to wind up restocking for the holiday period starting February 1st 2022 this year; however, prices today were buoyed by stronger futures, with Iron Ore Fines (Fe: 62%) CFR China assessed at $136.27/dmt and (Fe: 65%) assessed at $155.76/dmt CFR China according to SteelHome Consultancy.

In related news, The China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) announced that in mid-January (January 11-20) this year the average aggregate daily crude steel output of large and medium-sized steel enterprises in China which are members of CISA, totaled 1.99 million tonnes, up 1.05% compared to early January (January 1-10) this year.

In early January, crude steel output of CISA members was 1.97 million tonnes, down 0.6% compared to late December (December 21-31).

Inventory levels in the Chinese steel market also increased in the given period. As of January 20th, the finished steel inventories of large and medium-sized steel enterprises in China amounted to 13.15 million tonnes, rising by 0.28 million tonnes or 1.76% compared to January 10.