Iron ore steady with Chinese Communist Party meeting in focus

BEIJING, Oct 23 (Reuters) – Iron ore futures prices traded in a narrow range on Thursday as investors looked for demand cues from a slew of data and a key Chinese Communist Party meeting. The Communist Party leadership's four-day closed-door meeting that began on Monday is expected to release an outline of its next five-year policy. Hopes lingered that China may unveil some stimulus to boost economic growth and shore up consumer confidence following a raft of downbeat data and amid massive uncertainties stemming from the trade friction with the United States. The most-traded January iron ore contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) added 0.19% to 775.5 yuan ($108.87) a metric ton, as of 0237 GMT. The benchmark November iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was little changed at $104.2 a ton, as of 0227 GMT. The market waited for a batch of steel data, including inventory and production, to gauge demand. An expectation of weakening fundamentals in the fourth quarter stemming from robust shipments and sagging demand has limited the upside potential for ore prices. "Ore prices are likely to swing down as increasing supply coincides with falling demand," analysts at broker Galaxy Futures said. Australia's Fortescue posted a 4.2% rise in its first-quarter iron ore shipments on Thursday. Brazilian miner Vale reported on Tuesday its highest quarterly iron ore production since 2018. Coking coal and coke, other steelmaking ingredients, climbed 3.17% and 2.24%, respectively, on anticipation of constrained supply in some key production areas, said analysts. Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mixed. Rebar rose 0.39%, hot-rolled coil advanced 0.37%, wire rod dipped 0.18% and stainless steel was flat. ($1 = 7.1230 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Amy Lv and Colleen Howe; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

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