SINGAPORE - Iron-ore futures climbed on Wednesday, buoyed by strengthening ties between top producer Australia and leading consumer China, though gains were capped by concerns over persistent weakness in China's property sector.

The most-traded September iron-ore contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) DCIOcv1 traded 1.11% higher at 773.5 yuan ($107.71) a metric ton, as of 03:03 GMT.

The benchmark August iron-ore on the Singapore Exchange was 0.84% higher at $99.75 a ton.

After a meeting in Beijing, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a new Policy Dialogue on Steel Decarbonisation that would give Australia insight into Chinese government planning.

Albanese also said a decade-old free trade agreement with China, Australia's largest trade partner, would be reviewed.

With Australia's exports to China dominated by iron ore, Albanese travelled with executives from mining giants Rio Tinto, BHP, and Fortescue  who met Chinese steel industry officials on Monday.

Top iron-ore producer Rio Tinto reported a 13% quarter-on-quarter increase in shipments and its strongest second-quarter production since 2018.

Demand for steel in the manufacturing industry remains high, while expectations of supply-side policy actions have also driven prices, broker Galaxy Futures said in a note.

Still, weak fundamentals weigh on market sentiment.

Amid a persistent slowdown in China's property market, crude steel output in June fell 9.2% from the year before, leaving first-half production at its weakest since 2020.

This has offset positive sentiment building up in recent weeks on signs of robust demand, analysts from ANZ said in a note.

Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE fell, with coking coal DJMcv1 and coke DCJcv1 down 0.6% and 0.96%, respectively.

Most steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost ground. Rebar SRBcv1 dipped 0.26%, hot-rolled coil SHHCcv1 decreased 0.25%, wire rod SWRcv1 eased 0.09% and stainless steel SHSScv1 gained 0.12%.