Iron ore spot markets rose for a third consecutive session on Friday, continuing to recover having fallen to a four-month low earlier in the week.

According to Metal Bulletin, the price for benchmark 62% fines rose by 0.15% to $59.88 a tonne, leaving its gain from October 31 at 2.3%.

 58% fines fell 0.7% to $34.54 a tonne, seeing it inch back towards the multi-year lows seen earlier in the week.

Ore with 65% Fe content held steady at $80.20 a tonne while the premium for iron ore lump over the benchmark price narrowed by $2.50 to $21.50 a tonne.

The mixed performance followed a similar day in Chinese futures with iron ore contracts rising modestly while rebar contracts fell.

Iron ore futures in Dalian added 0.57% to 439.5 yuan while rebar futures in Shanghai slipped 0.05% to 3,656 yuan.

However, as opposed to the divergent moves seen during Friday’s day session, futures rallied in unison on Friday evening, pointing to the likelihood that spot markets may follow suit today.

Here’s the final scoreboard from Friday’s night session.

SHFE Rebar ¥3,676 , 1.24%
DCE Iron Ore ¥450.50 , 2.15%
DCE Coking Coal ¥1,153.50 , 1.59%
DCE Coke ¥1,739.50 , 0.52%

The rebound coincided with signs that Chinese steel mill output remains firm despite the looming threat of output curbs, bolstering sentiment towards the outlook for raw materials such as iron ore, coking coal and coke.

“Mills haven’t started production cuts as much as what we expected earlier,” an unnamed commodity funds trader in Shanghai told Reuters.

Reuters reports that policymakers in Tangshan have ordered different levels of capacity cuts, leading to speculation that output may not be curtailed as much as expected.

Widespread steel production cuts are expected to be fully implemented by November 15.

Trade in Chinese commodity futures will resume at midday AEDT.

• [Editor:Wang Linyan]