Iron ore price tumbled on Wednesday after the Shanghai Futures Exchange vowed to look into “abnormal transactions”, piling on the government’s earlier attempts to temper commodity inflation through warnings.
Iron ore price on the Dalian Commodity Exchange dropped 6.1% to 994.50 ($155.59) yuan a tonne, just above the day’s low of 992 yuan ($155.20), its weakest since April 12.
Shanghai construction steel rebar ended daytime trading 6% lower at 4,667 yuan ($729.79) a tonne, after earlier touching 4,661 yuan, its lowest since March 24.
Related Article: Fundamentals to drive iron ore price back to $140 by end-2021 – report
Trading began with markets already under pressure on worries about monsoon rains in China’s south and the scorching temperature in the north slowing down construction activity, which could dampen demand for rebar and iron ore.
“The domestic construction…off-season is coming soon,” analysts at Huatai Futures said in a note.
Rain in some parts of central and southern China has hit record highs.
