Iron ore falls as shipments jump, Trump agrees to two-week ceasefire

BEIJING, April 8 (Reuters) - Iron ore futures prices fell on Wednesday, as shipments of the key steelmaking ingredient from major suppliers surged and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran.

The most-traded iron ore contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) DCIOcv1 closed daytime trade 1.44% lower at 789 yuan ($115.60) a metric ton. It touched its lowest since March 11 at 785.5 yuan earlier in the session.

Benchmark May iron ore SZZFK6 on the Singapore Exchange was down 0.97% at $105.65 a ton as of 0749 GMT after hitting its lowest since April 2 at $104.8.

Iron ore shipments from major suppliers Australia and Brazil jumped by 30.5% week-on-week to 24.48 million tons as of April 7, data from consultancy Mysteel showed, as weather-related supply disruptions in Australia waned.

"High shipments and portside stocks, coupled with expectations that it's hard to see downstream steel consumption to improve materially, pressured ore prices," analysts at broker Galaxy Futures said in a note.

Rio Tinto RIO.AX said last month that operations at three of its four Pilbara iron ore port terminals have resumed following Tropical Cyclone Narelle.

Additionally, Trump's announcement sent oil prices plunging and temporarily eased concerns over rising freight costs.

Technically, the immediate price support is at $104.78, which is the 23.6% retracement of the uptrend from $94.89 to $107.84, according to Reuters analyst Wang Tao.

Over the next two weeks, the market may retrace toward the range of $101.36-$102.89, he said.

Other steelmaking ingredients gained ground, with coking coal DJMcv1 and coke DCJcv1 up 0.99% and 1.05%, respectively.

Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mixed. Rebar SRBcv1 shed 0.19% and wire rod SWRcv1 slipped 1.03%, while hot-rolled coil SHHCcv1 nudged up 0.06% and stainless steel SHSScv1 added 0.67%.

($1 = 6.8250 Chinese yuan)