BEIJING,
Aug 10 (Reuters) - Dalian
iron ore futures rose for a second trading session on Thursday, helped by
resilient demand after some mills in China's top steel production hub Tangshan
resumed production, although demand concerns over steel production curbs ahead
capped gains.
The most-traded January iron ore on China's Dalian Commodity
Exchange (DCE) DCIOcv1 traded
0.97% higher at 725 yuan a metric ton, as of 0232 GMT.
Iron ore consumption will remain resilient in the near term, as hot metal
output still hovered at a relatively high level and some mills have resumed
operations of blast furnaces since August, analysts at Huatai Futures said in a
note.
"The imported margins (of iron ore cargoes) have been quite
decent recently, luring traders to secure the imported cargoes, temporarily
supporting the spot prices, with the strengthen filtered through into the
domestic futures market today," said Cheng Peng, a Beijing-based analyst
at Sinosteel Futures.
But this is quite dangerous as more cargoes will be brought into
the domestic market. Therefore, iron ore prices will likely tumble once demand
shows clear signs of softening in the coming weeks, he warned.
The benchmark August iron ore SZZFU3 on the Singapore Exchange was little changed at
$101.35 a metric ton.
Iron ore demand will face downside risk in the medium term,
given that steelmakers tend to take a cautious attitude towards raw materials
procurement amid looming steel production controls, according to Huatai
analysts.
Other steelmaking ingredients were mixed with coking coal DJMcv1 climbing
0.37% while coke DCJcv1 fell
0.69%.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were broadly
weighed down by continuous pick-up in inventories and lukewarm demand.
Also, weighting on sentiment are renewed concerns over China's
flagging property market amid news that big developer Country Garden was not able to make $22
million in bond payments.
Rebar SRBcv1 dipped
0.22%, hot-rolled coil SHHCcv1 lost 0.66%, and stainless steel SHSScv1 shed
0.23%.
Wire rod SWRcv1 ticked
up 0.21%.