Over the past week China's metallurgical coke market has continued its upward trend, recording slight increases. Although corrections have been seen in the local steel markets, so far they have not had much impact on the domestic coke market. Currently, the general consensus is that domestic coke prices in China still have room for further upward movement due to the tightness of supplies in the market.
Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Average price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Average price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Coke | 2nd grade | Shanxi | 1,780 | +30 | 257 | +3 |
Shanghai | 1,980 | - | 290 | - |
The Chinese coke market has observed an overall price increase during the past week. The mainstream quotations of second grade metallurgical coke from large scale producers in Shanxi Province have increased by RMB 30/mt week on week to RMB 1,750-1,800/mt ($254-257/mt), with quotations for first grade metallurgical coke remaining at RMB 1,850-1,900/mt ($271-279/mt). Meanwhile, the purchase prices of Hebei Province-based mills are around RMB 1,900-1,950/mt ($277-286/mt) for second grade metallurgical coke. The mainstream prices in the eastern China coke market have remained at RMB 1,950-2,000/mt ($286-293/mt). In addition, the mainstream prices of coking coal in the overall domestic market are in the range of RMB 1,400-1,450/mt ($205-213/mt).
Over the week in question, the coke market has continued its upward trend and has observed relatively strong demand. In spite of the declines seen in the domestic steel markets, most market players believe that the correction is temporary, especially as no significant price decline has been observed in prices of raw materials. In this context, the general view of coking companies is that the price decline in the steel markets will not affect the coke market for the moment. Meanwhile, due to the relatively high levels of coking coal prices and owing to the expectation that some medium- and small-sized coal mines will continue raising their prices, coking companies are faced with high production costs.
Looking at the current market situation, it is expected that no big impact will be felt in the domestic coke market on condition that the local steel markets do not see any serious downturn. Meanwhile, due to the tightness of supplies of coking coal, coking companies have been forced to limit production, which is expected to lead to tight availability of coke in the short term.