Penalized by the price of coking coal and coke, ingredients essential to the manufacture of steel, futures contracts iron ore fell on Friday, while stocks are piling up and demand is cooling.

The most traded iron ore contract in May on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) in China traded down by 0.51 % at 773.5 yuan ($110.40) per metric ton, at 02:24 GMT.

The reference iron ore price for January on the Singapore Stock Exchange was down 0.1% to 103.95 dollars per ton, at 02:24 GMT.

Total iron ore stocks in ports Chinese increased by 2.26% week over week to around 148.8 million tons as of December 26, according to SteelHome data.

The stocks of the top five steel products at carbon held by Chinese steel mills fell to 14.5 million tonnes on December 25, recording their lowest level since the end of January, according to the consulting firm Mysteel.

The price of bars of reinforcement fell by 1.02%, that of hot-rolled coils by 0.76% and that of stainless steel by 0.12%. In contrast, the price of wire rod has increased by 2.57%