Seaborne iron ore prices fluctuated on news of the trade war ceasefire, but did not receive the uplift seen in steel futures prices. The Singapore Exchange, meanwhile, launched trading of its new 65% Fe product.

The Kallanish KORE 62% Fe index lost $0.71/t to $66.23/dry metric tonne cfr Qingdao. 80,000t of Jimblebar and 170,000t of PB fines traded on COREX at a floating price. On the Dalian Commodity Exchange the May 2019 contract became the most traded on Monday. This contract settled CNY 9/t higher at CNY 463.5/t ($66.76/t), while the January contract settled up CNY 13/t at CNY 492/t. On the Singapore Exchange, meanwhile, January 62% Fe futures settled up $1.18/t at $64.07/t.

Billet prices in Tangshan were key in channelling the boost to sentiment of the Trump-Xi meeting on Saturday. They ended Monday up another CNY 100/t and CNY 250/t higher than Friday at CNY 3,330/t. Tangshan traders note, however, that expectations at the start of Monday were for an even more dramatic increase and by the end of the day sentiment was already fading.

Monday also marked the first day of trading for the new 65% Fe iron ore contract on SGX. In total, 150,000t of the contract were cleared on Monday. The first trade was 10,000t of the January/February spread brokered by FIS between Trafigura and Gerald Metals.