Iron ore futures ended 2024 sharply down more than 15% as falling demand, low steel margins and high inventories at the ports of top consumer China pushed down prices for a key steel industry ingredient.
Prices rose throughout the day as sentiment was bolstered by Chinese President Xi Jinping's announcement that gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by about 5%, although growing caution following a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing activity in December weighed on prices early in the session.
The World Bank forecast China's gross domestic product will grow at 4.9% this year, higher June forecast of 4.8%.
The most traded May iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) in China ended the day's trading up by 1.17% to 779 yuan ($106.73) per tonne.
The benchmark price for the February iron ore contract on the Singapore Exchange rose 0.23% to $100.4 per tonne. tonne as of 07:03 GMT after falling to $99.6 early in the session.
Year to date, the Dalian contract has fallen by 16%, and Singapore's benchmark futures fell 18.5% due to weaker demand and a 2.7% year-on-year fall in Chinese steel production in the first 11 months of this year.
Lots of stimulus measures, adopted by Beijing since late September to boost its flagging economy have helped the ferrous metals market offset some of the losses caused by lingering problems in the real estate sector, which have weighed on steel consumption despite strong steel exports.
Shipborne iron ore markets are expected to become even more oversupplied in the new year, according to Thomas Gutierrez, head of data at consultancy Kallanish Commodities.
Others steel ingredients at DCE rose. Coking coal and coke rose 0.91% and 1.43%, respectively, although they posted year-on-year declines of 44% and 32.5%.
Steel fundamentals on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mixed, but ended the year with a fall of 11% to 25%.
Rebar grew by 0.39%, wire rod grew by 0.08%, while while hot-rolled steel fell in price by 0.09%, and stainless steel fell by 0.35%.