Iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange have gained increasing influence over the physical market since listing in 2013. Their trading volume reached 657.49 million lots, or 65.749 billion tonnes in 2017, down 3.95% on the year, according to the exchange.
China imported 1.075 billion tonnes of iron ore last year, a year-on-year increase of 5%, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. The country itself produced 249.62 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate in 2017, 7.7% higher than 2016, according to a report released jointly by the Metallurgical Mines' Association of China and a local information provider. In September 2017 the exchange modified the delivery standards for iron ore contracts to cater to changes in physical market pricing of different products, thereby closing the door to some brands...