In the January-August period of the year, China exported 4.771 million mt of metallurgical coke, down 25.4 percent year on year, with the declining pace 2.6 percentage points faster than that recorded in January-July. Higher crude still production than in 2018 led to lower coke exports.
In August alone, China exported 441,000 mt of metallurgical coke, up 15.4 percent month on month, while still down 44.0 percent year on year. Weak production restrictions in August and overall downtrend in the local steel market pushed coke producers to increase sales abroad, but it will still depend mostly on the appetites of Chinese mills in the near future.