Dalian iron ore up edges up at close

* Spot 62% iron ore rises to $85.5 per tonne

* Global steel output down 6% on-year in March (Adds details and updates closing prices)

BEIJING, April 23 (Reuters) – Benchmark iron ore futures closed higher on Thursday, aided by higher restocking demand as mills ramped up purchases ahead of the Labour Day holidays next week.

The most-traded September contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange jumped as much as 2.3% to 618 yuan ($87.36) a tonne, before ending up 0.2% at 605 yuan a tonne.

Spot prices of iron ore with 62% iron content for delivery to China rose to $85.5 per tonne on Wednesday.

Construction steel rebar and hot-rolled coil on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, however, edged down amid sluggish demand overseas, falling 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively.

Last month, global crude steel production dropped 6% from a year earlier, data from the World Steel Association showed.

“And all the signs suggest that the worse is yet to come,” according to a note from Capital Economics. “The first global contraction in steel production for five years is now firmly on the cards in 2020.”

FUNDAMENTALS

* Other steelmaking raw materials were mixed, with Dalian coking coal fell 1.2% to 1,101 yuan a tonne, while Dalian coke inched up 0.4% to 1,683 yuan a tonne.

* Stainless steel rose 0.7% to 13,035 yuan a tonne.

* More than 2.62 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 183,761 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

* China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Thursday approved quotas for imports of another 2,150 tonnes of high-grade copper scrap in 2020, as well as 1,030 tonnes of aluminium scrap and 1,510 tonnes of steel scrap.

* The Chinese economy will slowly recover from its first quarterly contraction since records began, economists predicted in the latest Reuters poll, but they warned of a likely recession if conditions worsen again from the pandemic.