BEIJING, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Chinese coking coal and coke futures ended higher on Wednesday, as a recent coronavirus outbreak in the country sparked supply concerns for the steelmaking ingredients.
China on Wednesday reported the most new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since January as some cities stepped up restrictions, cut flights and increased testing to get to grips with an outbreak driven mainly by the Delta variant.
"The coronavirus situation has been developing, which affected the turnover rate of coke and arrivals at mills," GF Futures wrote in a note.
The recent outbreak also delayed efficiency of motor transport for coking coal, it added.
The most traded coking coal futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, for September delivery, rose 2.3% to 2,314 yuan ($358.16) per tonne at close.
Coke futures jumped 3.4% to 2,953 yuan a tonne.
Prices for benchmark iron ore futures on the Dalian bourse also gained, edging up 0.5% to 1,067 yuan per tonne.
Spot prices of iron ore with 62% iron content for delivery
to China
FUNDAMENTALS
* Construction steel rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange , for October delivery, recovered in morning trade, up 2.5% to 5,454 yuan a tonne.
* Hot rolled coils, mostly used in the manufacturing sector, rose 2.7% to 5,853 yuan per tonne.
* Shanghai stainless steel futures fell 1.6% to 18,900 yuan a tonne.
* Zimbabwe has banned the export of raw chrome with immediate effect in a bid to support the domestic ferrochrome industry, minister of information Monica Mutsvangwa said on Tuesday.
($1 = 6.4608 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Min Zhang and Shivani Singh; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Ramakrishnan M.)
