The volume of iron ore 62% Fe fines futures contracts traded on the Singapore Exchange increased 25.41% on the month to around 403.51 million mt in January, the latest SGX data showed. It was also the second time above the 400 million mt level in the past three years, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights data.
"Derivative market participants chose to move positions to forward months by the end of the month," said an international broker, adding that it was quite normal for January.
The average open interest for the iron ore 62% Fe fines futures dropped 5.08% to around 116.17 million mt in January, the data showed.
The dollar-denominated front-January derivatives contract for iron ore 62% Fe futures traded on SGX stood at $135.13/dmt at the end of January, down about 0.91% from $136.37/dmt at the end of December.