SHANGHAI, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Chinese iron ore futures were little changed on Friday, with the contract heading for a third weekly gain as restocking by steel mills increases in the world's top consumer.
Chinese steel mills have stepped up purchases of the steelmaking ingredient after running down inventories as they pick up output ahead of planned production curbs in late August.
"Spot prices are firm as mills are restocking, while the supply glut does not seem as serious as the market expected earlier after many small high-cost iron ore miners shut down," said Xia Junyan, an analyst with Everbright Futures in Shanghai.
The most traded January iron ore contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 was steady at 385.0 yuan ($60.08) a tonne by 0240 GMT. It was not far from 388.5 yuan a tonne hit on Thursday, the highest since July 6.
Spot iron ore prices also got a temporary lift from disruptions at Tianjin port after two massive explosions. BHP Billiton's BHP.AX said its iron ore operations at the port have been affected. ID:nL3N10O6CB ID:nL3N10O6HP
Iron ore for immediate delivery to the Tianjin port .IO62-CNI=SI edged up 0.7 percent to $56.20 a tonne on Thursday, according to The Steel Index. The spot benchmark hit a one-month high of $56.40 last week.
Separately, Shanghai rebar futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SRBcv1 were little changed at 2,086 yuan a tonne by 0240 GMT.
Steel mills in regions around the capital Beijing are expected to cut output for a celebration of the end of World War Two between late August and early Sept.
Rebar and iron ore prices at 0240 GMT
Contract
Last
Change Pct Change
SHFE REBAR JAN6
2086
-3.00
-0.14
DALIAN IRON ORE DCE DCIO JAN6
385
+0.50
+0.13
SGX IRON ORE FUTURES SEP
52.35
-0.40
-0.76
THE STEEL INDEX 62 PCT INDEX
56.2
+0.40
+0.72
METAL BULLETIN INDEX
57.02
+0.71
+1.26
Dalian iron ore and Shanghai rebar in yuan/tonne
Index in dollars/tonne, show close for the previous trading day
($1 = 6.3994 Chinese yuan renminbi)