The front-month February 2020 stainless steel contract fell to a low of 15,280 yuan ($2,147.45) on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) from a base price of 15,585 yuan, before closing down 0.1% at 15,575 yuan.
In a speech on Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly, US President Donald Trump said he would no longer tolerate China's trade practices, and that he would not accept a "bad deal" in their trade negotiations.
"Trump's speech cast a pall on investor sentiment, and that's hurting a lot of commodities markets," said Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ Research. China's foreign minister and state councilor Wang Yi said Beijing would not bow to threats, including on trade, while expressing hopes that a round of high-level trade talks next month would produce positive results.
The trade dispute, which has darkened the economic growth outlook for China and developing Asia, could well persist into 2020, the Asian Development Bank said on Wednesday.
China is in no rush to follow other countries in significantly loosening monetary policy, though it has ample options to help prop up slowing growth, its central bank head said on Tuesday. Stainless steel's market debut saw trading volume reached 186,460 lots of five tonnes each, with only a few companies participating in the first batch of trade.