Iron Ore Holds Steady on Rising Steel Output

Iron ore futures hovered around CNY 807 per ton on Monday, staying near two-month highs as Chinese steel production picked up ahead of the National Day holidays. Industry data showed blast furnace operating rates rose 0.2 percentage points to 90.4% last week, driven by resumed activity in Northern China. Hot metal output, a key gauge of iron ore demand, also edged up 0.2% from the prior week to 2.41 million tons per day. On the supply side, port inventories across China slipped slightly to 132 million tons. Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China left its one- and five-year loan prime rates unchanged at 3% and 3.5% for the fourth straight month, despite a recent US Federal Reserve rate cut. Policymakers in Beijing have so far refrained from rolling out major stimulus, even as a string of economic data continues to highlight underlying weakness in the economy.