Reuters reported that Shanghai steel rebar futures edged lower on Monday reflecting a drab outlook for demand in top steel consumer China that has restrained buying of iron ore ahead of the Lunar New Year break this month.

The most traded May rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange dropped by 0.5% to CNY 4,176 a tonne by the midday break, its second loss in four sessions.

The report quoted a Chinese trader in Shanghai as saying that "Chinese steel mills have no confidence in the market in the short term, demand is still low and we expect this to continue until February."

(Sourced from Reuters)