After the May Day holiday, the Chinese metallurgical coke market has continued to move down amid weak transaction activity. The main coke futures contract (1209) price at Dalian Commodity Exchange has decreased by $1.5/mt week on week, closing at RMB 2,000/mt ($318.5/mt).
As of May 4, average second grade metallurgical coke spot prices in the main local markets in China have declined by about $3/mt week on week to $295/mt. Local coke prices in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
Although Chinese coking enterprises are striving to keep coke prices stable, coking coal prices have declined and so domestic steel mills have insisted on asking for reduced purchase prices. Accordingly, coke transaction prices have dropped further. It is expected that the Chinese coke market will continue its downward trend in the coming seven days.