Iron ore prices held at their lowest level since 2009 with buying interest for spot cargoes scarce as steel mills in top importer China still shut with the APEC meeting underway in Beijing.

Steel producers surrounding the country’s capital were ordered shut from Nov. 1 to cut smog during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting attended by world leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama.

Most of the shutdowns were in Tangshan in China’s top steel producing Hebei province. But mills farther from Beijing including those in Hunan province were also ordered to stop production for a few days, a Shanghai-based iron ore trader said, limiting further the pool of buyers of spot cargoes.

“There may be interest to buy material after APEC and that could push the market up a bit, but I don’t see a sharp recovery,” he said.

Iron ore for immediate delivery to China .IO62-CNI=SI was unchanged at $75.50 a tonne on Monday, holding at its weakest level since June 2009, according to data compiled by The Steel Index.

Pummeled by a deepening supply glut, iron ore prices have dropped 44 percent this year, the hardest hit among industrial commodities.

Citigroup slashed its iron ore price forecast for 2015, saying it could drop below $60 per tonne in the most bearish estimate yet from a financial institution on the steelmaking raw material.

The U.S. investment bank said it expects a “further deterioration” in China’s steel demand in the first quarter of 2015 due to “extremely tight credit conditions, slowing of manufacturing export growth, and the government prioritizing reform over short-term growth.”

Iron ore futures in China and Singapore retreated on Tuesday, with the most-traded May contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange slipping after a two-day gain.