Shanghai steel rebar futures jumped to a fresh record on Monday, reflecting rising cost of raw materials with spot iron ore prices near all-time highs on tight supplies.
The most active rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for October delivery rose 1.3 percent to 5,106 yuan per tonne at 0224 GMT, just off a peak of 5,107 yuan.
It was the second time that the contract chalked up a record level in less than a week, after rising as high as 5,097 yuan on Jan. 25.
"It's the result of surging prices of raw materials over the past few months and iron ore and coking coal prices are still on the upswing," said Jiang Zhiwei, analyst at BOC International Futures.
Fewer cargoes out of Brazil and India pushed spot iron ore prices to near $200 a tonne earlier this month, a record last seen in February 2008. Tight supplies will likely continue to support prices even with top buyer China off the market during its Feb. 2-8 Spring Festival holiday.
Indian ore with 63.5 percent iron ore content was quoted at $190-$192 a tonne, cost and freight delivered to China, on Monday, steady from Friday, Chinese consultancy Mysteel said.
The three major iron ore indexes, which are based on Chinese spot prices and are used by global miners to decide rates for quarterly contracts, stayed near record highs on Friday.
The Platts 62 percent iron ore index IODBZ00-PLT slipped 25 cents to $186.75 a tonne, just off the record $187 touched on Thursday.
The Steel Index 62 percent benchmark .IO62-CNI=SI edged down 30 cents to $185.30, but still near its all-time high of $185.70 reached on Jan. 21.
"The market is very slow and I think the Indian miners are concentrating on building up their stocks before they offer it out."
Indian ore with 63.5 percent iron ore content was quoted at $190-$192 a tonne, cost and freight delivered to China, on Monday, steady from Friday, Chinese consultancy Mysteel said.
The three major iron ore indexes, based on Chinese spot prices and used by global miners to decide rates for quarterly contracts, stayed near record highs on Friday.
The Platts 62 percent iron ore index IODBZ00-PLT slipped 25 cents to $186.75 a tonne, just off the record $187 touched on Thursday. The Steel Index 62 percent benchmark .IO62-CNI=SI edged down 30 cents to $185.30, but still near its all-time high of $185.70 reached on Jan. 21. Metal Bulletin's 62 percent gauge .IO62-CNO=MB dipped 11 cents to $183.76, a tad off the record $184.43 hit last week.
INDIAN FUTURES
Two Indian commodity exchanges on Saturday launched the world's first iron ore futures contracts, just days after securing regulatory approval.
But analysts say the contracts are unlikely to be considered global benchmarks anytime soon unless liquidity picks up strongly and with trading limited to domestic players.
At 0530 GMT, the March 62 percent fines on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) were up 0.7 percent at 7,545 rupees ($164.31) per tonne, while the March 62 percent fines on the Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX) rose 0.3 percent to 8,094 rupees a tonne, according to the bourses' websites.
The price quoted on ICEX is based on cost and freight delivered to China, while the quote on MCX is on a free on board basis. ICEX is part-owned by state-run MMTC Ltd which is the biggest Indian trader of iron ore, and MCX is the country's largest commodity exchange by turnover.
Before India's futures contracts, trading in iron ore derivatives were mostly done through forward swaps with exchanges from Singapore to the United States and Europe offering clearing services, hoping to draw steelmakers into hedging price risks.
The Singapore Exchange clears the bulk of global swaps and prices were mostly mixed on Friday. The February contract slipped a dollar to $179.50 a tonne and March gained $1.50 to $174.25. ($1 = 45.920 rupees)