Dalian iron ore futures prices climbed on Monday and were set for monthly gains, aided by resilient demand in top consumer China, while US President Donald Trump’s recent comments eased concerns about an escalation in US-China trade tensions.
The most-traded May iron ore contract on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) ended daytime trade 1.06% higher at 810.5 yuan ($111.54) a metric ton. The contract has gained 4.31% so far this month.
China’s financial markets will be closed on Jan. 28 until Feb. 4 for a public holiday. Trading will resume Feb. 5, Wednesday.
The benchmark February iron ore on the Singapore Exchange was 0.16 % higher at $105.1 a ton as of 0704 GMT.
“Chinese iron ore prices picked up slightly… driven mainly by the continuous recovery in ore demand from blast furnace steelmakers,” Chinese consultancy Mysteel said in a note.
In January, the daily average production of crude steel of key steel enterprises logged a monthly rise of 0.3%, Chinese consultancy Lange Steel said, citing statistics from the China Iron and Steel Association.
Trump described his call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday as “friendly”, and said he would rather not use tariffs against China, though acknowledging tariffs as a “tremendous power”.
Still, weak industrial data in the world’s second-largest economy despite a raft of stimulus measures curbed price gains of the key steelmaking ingredient.
China’s manufacturing activity unexpectedly contracted in January, its weakest since August.
Sentiment was also pressured by lingering concerns of US tariffs, leading to Chinese equities trading flat.
Other steelmaking ingredients on the DCE gained, with coking coal and coke up 0.8% and 2.23%, respectively.
“The support the prices enjoyed was from the bright outlook for a production recovery at steelmakers after the break,” Mysteel said in a separate note.
($1 = 7.2666 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting by Michele Pek in Singapore and Amy Lv in Beijing; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Rashmi Aich)
