The iron ore price jumped more than 2% on Tuesday, extending a 6% rally that began Thursday last week when Chinese commodities traders returned from a three-day holiday.

The benchmark import price of 62% iron ore fines at China's Tianjin port gained 2.3% or $2.70 to trade at $117.70 a tonne on Tuesday according to data supplied by The Steelindex. It was the highest price since May 28 and represent a 6.6% gain from the 2013 low of $110.4 hit at the end of that month.

Most analysts still predict a steady decline in the price of iron ore towards the end of this year and into 2014 on the back of a slowdown in China which consumes more than 60% of the seaborne trade and vast new supplies coming on stream.

But the import price could be supported by new rules being proposed by Chinese authorities to open up the industry to market forces.