Rebar Falls as China Industrial Output Shows Weaker Start to ’13

March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Steel reinforcement-bar futures fell to the lowest in more than two months after China’s industrial output had the weakest start to a year since 2009.

Rebar for delivery in October on the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell by as much as 1.6 percent to 3,867 yuan ($622) a metric ton, the lowest level for a most-active contract since Dec. 27, and closed at 3,908 yuan at 3 p.m. local time. The contract declined for a third week last week.

China’s industrial output rose 9.9 percent in the first two months this year and retail sales rose 12.3 percent, government data showed March 9, trailing economists’ estimates. New local- currency loans in February fell to 620 billion yuan, the People’s Bank of China said yesterday, less than the estimates of 27 out of 28 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

“Sentiment has turned pessimistic over government policy and the Chinese economy,” Fang Guodong, analyst at Wanda Futures Co., said in a report today.

The average spot price for rebar fell 0.2 percent today to 3,753 yuan a ton, according to data from Beijing Antaike Information Development Co. Iron ore for immediate delivery was unchanged on March 8 at $146.30 a ton, according to data compiled by The Steel Index Ltd.

--Feiwen Rong, with assistance from Helen Sun in Shanghai. Editor: Brett Miller