Iron ore futures prices eased on Tuesday, weighed by steel mills undergoing annual furnace maintenance and rising Chinese port inventories. The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) traded 0.64% lower at 775.5 yuan ($110.30) a metric ton, as of 0258 GMT. The benchmark January iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 0.49% lower at $104.25 a ton. Steel mills currently have blast furnace annual maintenance plans, leading to a wider decline in pig iron production, while port inventories continue to accumulate, indicating a marginal weakening of fundamentals, said Chinese broker ... (full story)