A swathe of poor economic data in China is putting pressure on the price of iron ore, which is struggling to hold above the key psychological level of $100 a metric ton.
However, the run of soft indicators in China's embattled property sector has yet to translate into a significant decline in the volume of imports of the main raw material used to make steel.
Commodity analysts Kpler and Refinitiv are estimating that August imports will top 100 million metric tons, which would be the first time this has happened since March's customs figure of 100.23 million.
