Iron ore drops

Reuters

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.