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Singapore and Dalian iron ore futures extended declines on Friday, dragged down further by renewed fears of a banking crisis in the United States and lingering worries of diminishing demand amid reduced production by some Chinese steelmakers.
Prices regained some lost ground but ended up with losses in afternoon trading after having refreshed five-month lows in the morning.
Shares of U.S. regional banks resumed their slide this week after the collapse of First Republic Bank, the third mid-sized lender to fail in two months.
“Ongoing turmoil in US regional banks continued to dominate headlines and markets overnight,” analysts at ANZ bank said in a note.
Meanwhile, iron ore demand continued to shrink with the daily hot metal output among the surveyed 247 steel mills declining by 1.3% week-on-week to 2.41 million tonnes in the week as of May 5, data from consultancy Mysteel showed.
The benchmark June iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was down 1.45% at $98 a tonne, as of 0715 GMT, after having fallen to a new five-month low at $94.2 a tonne in the morning session.
The most-traded September iron ore on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended daytime trading 0.99% lower at 697.5 yuan ($100.93) a tonne after touching a new five-month low at 675.5 yuan a tonne in the morning.
“Some mills planned to increase equipment maintenance amid shrinking margins, which will further cap demand for iron ore in the short term,” analysts at Sinosteel Futures said in a note.
“We expect portside (iron ore) inventories to gradually step into a cycle of picking up later.”
There is scheduled maintenance on 21 blast furnaces (BFs) in May, reducing capacity by 78,000 tonnes/day, and nine BFs will resume production within the month, increasing capacity by 32,000 tonnes/day, Mysteel said in a report.
Rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.52% to 3,622 yuan a tonne, hot-rolled coil retreated 0.38%, and stainless steel edged down 0.1%.
The other steelmaking ingredients reversed courses, with coking coal climbing 1.31% and coke rising 1.64%.