* Dalian iron ore jumps 2.5%, SGX iron ore up 0.3%
* Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) willing to help improve pricing system
By Enrico Dela Cruz
MANILA, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Dalian iron ore breached the 1,000-yuan mark on Wednesday on optimism over demand for the steelmaking raw material and as traders fretted about supply in top steel producer China due to some disruptions in Australia.
The most-traded May iron ore contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange DCIOcv1 climbed 2.5% to 1,003 yuan ($153.32) a tonne by 0251 GMT.
Iron ore on the Singapore Exchange SZZFF1 rose 0.3% to $153.74 a tonne.
"From the fundamentals perspective, steel margins are still good, at least for industrial materials including hot-rolled coil," said Richard Lu, senior analyst at CRU Group in Beijing.
"That's why the Chinese hot metal production is elevated, despite a marginal fall in recent weeks due to mill maintenance and stricter operating restrictions in some regions," he said.
Iron ore arrivals to China are expected to slow down, Lu added, citing some disruptions in Australia.
Mysteel consultancy's latest survey showed iron ore dispatched from Australia and Brazil fell for the second week over Dec. 7-13 by another 1 million tonnes from the prior week.
However, Lu said the market bulls and bears are expected to slug it out at about the 1,000-yuan mark, which was breached on Friday for the first time ever due to what some analysts had described as strong speculative interest in iron ore.
China's steel producers have called for a regulatory probe into the skyrocketing prices and a crackdown on any wrongdoing. Miner Rio Tinto RIO.AX is willing to work with iron ore consumers to review the pricing mechanism for the steelmaking ingredient, the China Iron & Steel Association said. Spot iron ore steadied at $156.50 a tonne on Tuesday, based on SteelHome data, near an almost eight-year peak hit on Friday. SH-CCN-IRNOR62
* Rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange SRBcv1 rose 2.7%, while HRC SHHCcv1 jumped 2.4%. Stainless steel SHSScv1 slumped 1.4%.
* Coking coal DJMcv1 advanced 1.5% and coke DCJcv1 gained 1.4%.