Iron ore slumps over 4% as speculative buying dissipates

Iron ore futures slumped more than 4% on Monday, with the Dalian benchmark retreating from the 1,000 yuan a tonne level scaled last week when prices were underpinned by strong speculative interest in the steelmaking ingredient.

The most-traded May iron ore contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 4.2% to 956.50 yuan ($146.29) a tonne in morning trade.

Iron ore's most-active January contract on the Singapore Exchange dropped 4.5% to $150.71 a tonne.

As iron ore had hit overbought levels, according to analysts, China's steel producers on Friday pushed for a regulatory probe into the skyrocketing prices and a crackdown on any wrongdoing.

The speculative buying in futures markets had pushed the spot price in China to the highest since February 2013 at $159.50 a tonne on Friday, SteelHome consultancy data showed.