Market News

BY  Katharine Gemmell

(Bloomberg) -- Iron ore headed for its longest run of daily losses since August as China’s steel industry heads into the low season and the optimism around the US-China trade truce faded.

The steel-making ingredient dropped for a sixth day, falling to as low as $102.65 a ton. Futures have retreated more than 4% since the close last Wednesday, a day before President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping reset the trade relationship between the world’s two biggest economies at a meeting in South Korea.

China’s steel industry is heading into a period of more subdued activity as construction slows over winter and steel mills ramp up maintenance. At the same time, iron ore imports at Chinese ports have rebounded in recent months, adding further downward pressure to prices.

“The market has priced in all the positive macro expectations, and we are entering a macro stagnant period with limited new catalysts,” said Mengtian Jiang, an analyst at Chinese-based consultancy Horizon Insights. The price of coking coal, another major steelmaking input, has also been strong recently, leading traders to shift their bullish bets from iron ore to coal in another headwind for prices, she said.

Iron ore futures dipped 0.1% to $103.40 a ton in Singapore as of 10:55 a.m. local time, after falling as much as 0.8% earlier. Yuan-priced futures on the Dalian exchange added 0.1%, while steel contracts in Shanghai edged higher.

Copper, meanwhile, advanced 0.5% to $10,753.50 a ton on the London Metal Exchange. Aluminum and zinc both added 0.3%.