Chinese iron ore futures are flying this afternoon.

The January contract on the Dalian commodities exchange, having been up slightly more that 1.5% for most of Monday’s session, has suddenly leapt by 14 yuan to 364.5 in recent trade.

At 3.99%, the contract is now “limit up”, meaning it cannot rise further for the session.

Should the gain in Dalian be maintained this afternoon the spot price could experience a hefty increase later on this evening.

On Thursday the price for 62% iron ore fines rose 11c to $50.66 a tonne according to Metal Bulletin’s iron ore index. On Friday there was no spot price set due to a public holiday in Singapore.