Iron ore and steel futures in China fell sharply on Tuesday after authorities raised transaction costs to cool last week’s rapid gains in Chinese commodities, which had raised fears of an unstable speculative bubble forming, Reuters reported. Base metals futures also fell, while other commodities, including coking coal and cotton, surrendered most of their early gains to end nearly flat. China’s top commodity exchanges in Dalian, Shanghai and Zhengzhou have increased trading margins and fees in response to surges in prices and volumes last week that were not matched by an improvement in the fundamentals for most of the underlying commodities.
