The price of iron ore rallied back towards $US50 per tonne as investors took heart from Beijing’s intervention in Shanghai markets.

At the end of the latest session, benchmark iron ore for immediate delivery to the port of Tianjin in China was trading at $US49.90 a tonne, up 3.2 per cent on its prior close.

Iron ore prices came under heavy pressure last week as volatility on Chinese sharemarkets helped push the steelmaking ingredient to ten-year lows. China is comfortably the world’s largest consumer of the commodity and worries about the country's growth have seen iron ore prices fall from $US62 per tonne just two weeks ago.

Commodity traders will be keeping a close eye on China’s latest trade figures, due today (Monday), for clues about how the world’s second-largest economy is going.

On Wednesday, China’s second quarter GDP data is due, along with retail sales and production numbers.