* Dalian iron ore down 10.1% this week
* Capacity utilisation rates at 163 mills hit 1-1/2 year low
* Steel rebar and hot rolled coil hit record highs (Adds detail, closing prices)
BEIJING, April 2 (Reuters) – Benchmark iron ore futures in China rose on Friday but were down more than 10% over the week while steel rebar and hot rolled coil prices closed at record highs on supply curbs.
China’s state planner and industry ministry on Thursday announced planned inspections to check on implementation of steel capacity cuts in the past few years and reiterated its intention to curb crude steel output further in 2021 to reduce emissions.
Capacity utilisation rates at 163 blast furnaces in China fell to 76.92% this week, the lowest level since October 2019, data from Mysteel consultancy showed.
The most active iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange closed 1.8% up at 979 yuan ($149.18) a tonne on Friday but was down 10.1% over the week.
Steel futures, meanwhile, extended gains on recovering consumption. Apparent demand for rebar and hot rolled coil rose by 7% and 2% respectively week on week.
The most-traded May contract for steel rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange surged 3.7% to 5,157 yuan at the close, the highest on record, for a ninth straight weekly gain.
Daily transaction volumes for construction materials, including rebar and wire rods, broke above 300,000 tonnes for the first time and stood at 350,700 tonnes on Thursday, Mysteel data showed.
Hot-rolled coil futures rose 2.5% to a record 5,556 yuan a tonne. The contract had risen for four consecutive weeks and ended this week with a 6.9% gain.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Dalian coking coal futures fell 2.7% to 1,570 yuan a tonne.
* Coke futures rose 2.6% to 2,386 yuan a tonne.
* Spot prices of iron ore with 62% iron content for delivery to China gained by $2 to $168 a tonne on Thursday.
* Shanghai stainless steel futures for June delivery edged down 0.2% to 14,275 yuan a tonne.
* Trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange and Dalian Commodity Exchange will be halted on April 5 for the Tomb Sweeping holiday. ($1 = 6.5626 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Min Zhang and Shivani Singh Editing by Uttaresh.V and David Goodman)
