Over the past week China' metallurgical coke market has basically followed a stable trend, supported by high costs of coking coal. Due to the national policy on energy savings and emissions reductions, domestic steel production has decreased to some extent in September and so demand for coke has also declined.
Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Average price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Average price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Coke | 2nd grade | Shanxi | 1,640 | - | 241 | - |
Shanghai | 1,850 | - | 273 | - |
During the past week China's domestic coke market generally remained stable. The mainstream quotations of second grade metallurgical coke from large scale producers in Shanxi Province have been at RMB 1,600-1,650/mt ($235-243/mt), unchanged week on week, with quotations for first grade metallurgical coke standing at RMB 1,750-1,800/mt ($257-265/mt), also remaining neutral week on week. Meanwhile, the purchase prices of Hebei Province-based mills are still at RMB 1,750-1,800/mt ($257-265/mt) for second grade metallurgical coke. The mainstream prices in the eastern Chinese coke market are at RMB 1,850/mt ($272/mt), while prices in northeastern China are at RMB 1,650/mt ($243), unchanged week on week. In addition, the mainstream prices of coking coal in the overall domestic market have remained stable at RMB 1,400-1,500/mt ($199-214/mt).
Due to the central government policy on energy savings and emissions reductions, domestic steel mills have cut production and so demand for coke has declined. In this context, some steel producers have sought lower coke prices. However, with coking enterprises facing high coking coal costs, they are unable to accept reductions in coke prices at present.
In August this year, China's coke production was 31.4 million mt, up 0.2 percent year on year but down 0.38 percent month on month. During the period from January to August inclusive, the overall output of coke in China was 256.3 million mt, up 15.4 percent year on year.