MANILA, March 14 (Reuters) - Benchmark iron ore futures in China climbed to the week’s highest in early trade on Thursday as steel mills continued to buy raw materials, but the uncertain outlook for the country’s steel demand capped further gains.
Steel prices were lower, with the benchmark construction steel rebar contract retreating after two days of gains.
The May 2019 iron ore contract, the most active on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, rose as much as 2.2 percent to 623.5 yuan ($93.00) a tonne.
“Steel mills in China have started ramping up their sintering utilization,” said Darren Toh, a data scientist with Singapore-based steel and iron ore data analytics company Tivlon Technologies.
“Our data analytics model is suggesting that iron ore prices are starting to firm from the second half of March onwards,” he said, adding that Tivlon is maintaining its $120 a tonne target price by August this year.
Coking coal was up as much as 0.6 percent at 1,242 yuan a tonne, while coke edged up 0.8 percent to 2,016.5 yuan.
Some of the macroeconomic data in China is “quite supportive of the commodities market”, said metals and mining analyst Helen Lau of Argonaut Securities.
“If you look at the property investment, it’s accelerating. The fixed asset investment is stronger also and the number is in line with some market expectations, reflecting government support,” she said.
