During the week ending July 27, metallurgical coke prices in the Chinese domestic market have speeded up their downward movement amid significant decreases in iron ore and steel scrap prices. Meanwhile, the 1301 coke futures contract price at Dalian Commodity Exchange closed at RMB 1, 600/mt ($251/mt). Local coke prices in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
The overall sluggishness of the domestic steel market has continued to exert a negative impact on the Chinese coke market. At the same time, however, as buyers and sellers have reached consensus on prices, the volumes of orders in the coke market has seen some improvement. On the other hand, with more and more price cuts made by large coking coal producers, the domestic coke market now has less support from production costs. It is expected that coke prices in China will continue to slide down in the coming week.