Iron ore prices gained further ground on Friday January 5 despite the Chinese steel market retreating again.
Key driversChina's spot prices for hot-rolled coil shed 20-30 yuan per tonne during the day while those for rebar tumbled 30-130 yuan per tonne.The country's ferrous futures market was rangebound in the morning, and then experienced a V-shaped trend in the afternoon, falling sharply before recovering just about as rapidly. But the benchmark steel and iron ore contracts still ended lower than Thursday's closing prices.In the seaborne iron ore market, trading activity picked up during the day, with at least five deals reported on a trading platform while a tender held by a miner was concluded at a higher price than the previous transaction.This could still partly be due to restocking demand for shipments set to arrive in China before the Chinese New Year in mid-February, sources said.A mill source in Tangshan...