Over the past week China's metallurgical coke market moved on a stable trend while the overall situation as regards transaction activity improved. Some medium and small sized domestic steel mills have resumed production, and so demand for coke has increased to some extent. Meanwhile, due to restrictions on outputs of some coking plants, supplies of coke may be tight in the coming period.
Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Average price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Average price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Coke | 2nd grade | Shanxi | 1,580 | - | 233 | - |
Shanghai | 1,800 | - | 273 | - |
During the past week, China's domestic coke market has been basically stable. The mainstream quotations of second grade metallurgical coke from large scale producers in Shanxi Province have been at RMB 1,550-1,600/mt ($229-236/mt), unchanged week on week, with quotations for first grade metallurgical coke standing at RMB 1,700-1,750/mt ($251-258/mt), also remaining neutral week on week. Meanwhile, the purchase prices of Hebei Province-based mills are still at RMB 1,720-1,750/mt ($253-258/mt) for second grade metallurgical coke. The mainstream prices in the eastern China coke market are at RMB 1,800/mt ($265/mt), while prices in northeastern China are at RMB 1,650/mt ($243/mt), unchanged week on week. In addition, the mainstream prices of coking coal in the overall domestic market have remained stable at RMB 1,350-1,450/mt ($199-214/mt).
Transaction activity in China's coke market improved during the past week, especially in the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei. The positive situation in the coke market can be attributed to the upward trend in the domestic steel market. On the other hand, the current high prices of coking coal provide support for coke prices. At present, the prices of premium grade coking coal in the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei are still at RMB 1,450-1,500/mt ($214-221/mt). As the high coal prices can cause coking enterprises to incur losses, most coking enterprises continue to limit their production to around 30-40 percent of capacity.
In the first half of 2010, China's coking industry adapted its output level to market demand, producing 192.87 million mt of coke, up 21.4 percent year on year. In the period in question, the overall output of coking plants owned by steel mills increased by 11.55 percent, while the output of independent coking enterprises registered a growth of 27.86 percent, both on year-on-year basis.
In the first six months of this year, China imported 22.34 million mt of coking coal, increasing by 73.4 percent year on year, with the average import price rising by 12.53 percent compared with the same period last year. During the period from January to June inclusive, China exported a total of 1.4 million mt of coke, up five times, accounting for just 0.75 percent of total domestic output.