Iron ore futures fell below CNY 740 per ton, hovering near their lowest levels in almost a year as shrinking profit margins at steel mills and seasonal demand weakness weighed on sentiment. Industry data showed that the share of profitable Chinese steel mills declined to about 51% in the latest week, down 4.8 percentage points from the previous week and 8.2 percentage points from a year earlier.
This margin squeeze followed a fatal coal-mining accident in Shanxi last month, which pushed up coke prices and prompted mills to increase their use of medium- to high-grade iron ore to boost efficiency. Iron ore has also remained under pressure in recent weeks amid seasonally softer demand, rising seaborne supply, and still-elevated inventories at Chinese ports, with stockpiles reaching about 160 million tons— a record level for this time of year.
