Oversupply and a weak outlook for the second quarter have continued to undermine China’s steel and iron ore prices. Steel futures extended their new lows on Thursday while iron trades also showed continued weakness in the market.

The January 2015 rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange monitored by Kallanish fell Yuan 40/tonne to close at Yuan 2,937/t ($476/t), while the October 2014 hot rolled coil contract on the same exchange fell Yuan 50/t to Yuan 3,132/t.

Iron ore prices also confirmed their new position under $90/t. 120,000 tonnes of 62% MNP fines were traded shortly before 5pm Beijing time at $87/dry metric tonne cfr Qingdao. A fixed price cargo of MNP fines last traded on the platform at $92.2/dmt cfr Qingdao on 20 August.

Meanwhile, a 100,000t cargo of 58% Yandi fines was traded on the GlobalORE trading platform on Thursday afternoon for $76/dmt cfr Qingdao for October delivery. A cargo of Yandi fines had been sold on the platform at $81.3/dmt on 14 August, Kallanish notes.

A cargo of 90,000t of 62% MNP fines was also sold against the Platts 62% Fe index with no premium for October delivery. The grade was last traded at a $0.10/t premium to the index on 22 August.

Underlining the weak sentiment for the rest of the year were reports that China’s housing inventory could increase dramatically by the end of December. Property developers have difficulty sitting on projects as they are fined for holding unused land and many expect to bring large numbers of new properties to the market over the coming months.

However, housing sales have remained extremely low and pressure on prices is expected to increase. Reports on Thursday suggested some home owners in Jinan took to the streets to protest after one major developer slashed the value of unsold homes.