Iron ore gains on US-China trade deal optimism

BEIJING, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Iron ore futures prices ticked up on Monday, as signs of easing trade tensions between China and the United States outweighed lingering concerns about demand in top consumer China.

Top Chinese and U.S. economic officials on Sunday hashed out the framework of a trade deal for U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to decide on later this week.

The most-traded January iron ore contract on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) DCIOcv1 rose 0.32% to 774 yuan ($108.66) a metric ton by 0208 GMT.

The benchmark November iron ore SZZFX5 on the Singapore Exchange was 0.24% higher at $104.45 a ton, as of 0158 GMT.

Gains were, however, limited as a wave of production curbs in top Chinese steel production hub of Tangshan city raised concerns about demand for the key steelmaking ingredient.

The northern Chinese city of Tangshan will launch a level-2 emergency response from Monday amid a forecast of worsening air pollution, it said on its WeChat account late on Sunday.

Local steel mills are typically required to curb production during such emergency actions.

Also casting a shadow on the iron ore demand outlook was Beijing's proposal for a more stringent steel capacity swap plan to reduce existing capacity and rebalance supply and demand, 14 months after it paused the old programme.

Coking coal DJMcv1 and coke DCJcv1, other steelmaking ingredients, dropped 0.84% and 0.71%, respectively.

Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange gained ground. Rebar SRBcv1 added 0.46%, hot-rolled coil SHHCcv1 advanced 0.58%, wire rod SWRcv1 rose 0.78% and stainless steel SHSScv1 nudged up 0.04%.

($1 = 7.1230 Chinese yuan)