Rapid increase in Chinese coke export prices

SteelOrbis Shanghai Chinese coke export prices began to increase rapidly in May, and the prices have reached around $175/mt FOB nowadays. From January to April, the exported Chinese coke totaled 4.2 million mt with average price at only $123.05/mt, down 39.86 percent year on year. However, this situation changed in the beginning of May and the coke export prices saw an upturn. At present, the coke export price at the major domestic ports has rebounded to $170/mt FOB, up $60/mt compared with the $110/mt at the beginning of the year. In May and June, no coke could be transported out of Shanxi Province. In order to support the electricity-coal supply, the rail transportation has mainly been used for coal transportation, which led to tight coke supply at some regions. The inventory at Tianjin Port was even less than one million mt, which is the lowest level in the history. Therefore, the people in the industry think that the price rebound resulted from insufficient supply due to transportation issues, rather than the real changes in the supply and demand relationship. The future export price of coke mainly depends on the transportation conditions from Shanxi to Tianjin Port.