Iron ore prices jump on bullish outlook

Iron ore prices jumped by around 6% in China today amid increasingly bullish sentiment surrounding the outlook for demand in 2018.

Over recent months, Chinese iron ore prices have been hit by the government´s plans to implement streel production cuts over the winter as part of measures to tackle pollution.

Iron ore on China´s Dalian Commodity Exchange reached an intraday high of Rmb464.5 ($70.01), an increase of over 10% on the four-month low of October 30.

The plans to curtail production erased the gains made in the mid-summer when iron ore prices surged on hopes that a strengthening global economic outlook would lift demand.

Today´s increase indicates traders are feeling confident that the market will see strong demand next year when the production curbs expire.