Iron ore drops

By our correspondents
January 30, 2016

Reuters

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Manila

Shanghai rebar steel futures dropped another 1.5 percent on Friday, helping stretch losses in iron ore futures in Dalian.

Iron ore for immediate delivery to China´s Tianjin port gained 0.5 percent to $41.50 a tonne on Thursday, according to The Steel Index.

Additional iron ore supply from Australia´s Roy Hill mine and Vale´s S11D project in Brazil "will worsen the oversupplied situation amid China´s steel production slowdown", said Helen Lau, analyst at Argonaut Securities in Hong Kong.

China´s crude steel output dropped 2.3 percent to 803.8 million tonnes in 2015, the first yearly fall since 1981, as producers responded to shrinking demand.

The world´s No. 2 economy grew at its slowest pace in a quarter of a century in 2015. The most-traded May rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed down 1.5 percent at 1,814 yuan ($275.88) a tonne.

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