Last few days has witnessed glimmer of hope emerging in iron ore market with Chinese steel futures picking up.

Shanghai rebar futures climbed to their highest in three weeks on Thursday and have rebounded more than 2 percent from July's lows on hopes China's efforts to spur economic activity via measures including quickening infrastructure spending will boost steel consumption. The most traded rebar for delivery in January on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was up 0.4% at CNY 3,117 per tonne by midday after hitting CNY 3,125 earlier, its highest since July 17.

Iron ore levels have inched by USD 1 per tonne touching USD 96 per tonne and are expected to oscillate in a band of USD 95 per tonne to USD 100 per tonne in the short term with Chinese steel consumption likely to pick up.

Presently supplies of immediate cargoes remain brisk with some Chinese mills preferring to buy from iron ore stockpiles USD 2-3 a tonne cheaper versus fresh sea-borne cargoes, he said. Stocks of imported iron ore at China's ports fell for a second straight week to 111.55 million tonnes on Aug. 1.