DALIAN, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- Iron ore futures closed lower on Friday in daytime trading at the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE).

The most active iron ore contract for May 2026 delivery dipped 4 yuan (about 57 U.S. cents) to close at 812 yuan per tonne.

On Friday, the total trading volume of 12 listed iron ore futures contracts on the exchange was 321,051 lots, with a turnover of about 26.14 billion yuan.

As the world's largest importer of iron ore, China opened the DCE iron ore futures to international investors in May 2018.