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This aligns with changes announced by SGX that SGX TSI Iron Ore CFR China (62% Fe Fines) Index Futures will change specification from 62% Fe to 61% Fe for new positions expiring in 2026 and beyond.
Fastmarkets’ iron ore methodology remains unchanged, with price reporters engaging with a wide range of verified market sources daily to obtain fixed price trades and price estimates, index-linked trades and price estimates, with these data points used in tonnage-weighted index calculations.
The calculation of fixed-price equivalents for index-linked cargoes in the spot market will reflect the premium or discount quoted to the forward price of the underlying index. Market participants continue to adjust the prevailing premium or discount level on top of the underlying index to ensure a final fixed price equivalent which reflects the product value.
Fastmarkets continues to prioritize fixed-price deals among price discovery data points; these therefore receive the highest weighting in index calculations.
The fixed-price deal data carry full tonnage weighting as reported to Fastmarkets. Index-linked deal data carry 50% of the traded tonnage reported, while non-transaction data such as bids, offers and price estimates — including for both fixed price data and index-linked data — will carry the minimum tonnage of 30,000 tonnes.
For iron ore products traded on a 65% Fe index, Fastmarkets continues to refer to the SGX 65% Fe forward curve to obtain a fixed-price equivalent.
Fastmarkets considers SGX 61% Fe forward curve data in conjunction with SGX 65% Fe forward curve data, particularly during low liquidity periods for SGX 65% Fe. Fastmarkets will refer to the SGX 61% Fe forward curve and adjust for the 65%/61% Fe differential using the latest difference between the SGX daily settlement prices for the 61% and 65% Fe futures contracts. Fastmarkets also polls the market indications of the differential for use in pricing.
For low-grade iron ore, the market has not fully settled on a final pricing mechanism. Fastmarkets will keep monitoring the market situation and issue another pricing notice when necessary.
If low-grade products trade against a 61% Fe index or a basket of 61% Fe indices with a discount, Fastmarkets will refer to the SGX 61% Fe forward curve, referencing the average traded forward prices on the SGX one hour prior to the spot transaction time — up to a final window of 4-5pm for each day — as per our current iron ore methodology. If low-grade products trade against a 62% Fe index or a basket of 62% Fe indices with a discount, Fastmarkets will request for a fixed price equivalent from market participants.
Please note, this clarification of inclusion of exchange-linked data has no effect on historic prices.
To provide feedback on the content of the iron ore index methodologies, or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to these indices, please email: pricing@fastmarkets.com and steelrawmaterials@fastmarkets.com with the subject heading “re: Iron Ore Methodology”.
To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents, go to the Fastmarkets methodology page.