Coking industry associations in China including Shanxi Coking Industry Association, Hebei Coking Industry Association and Shandong Coking Industry Association recently held a conference attended by many coking coal producers and distributors to discuss guidelines for the supervision of the domestic coking coal market in May.
At the conference it was agreed that any coking coal producing enterprise should adhere to the principles of basing production on tonnages ordered, reducing coking coal inventories and stablizing market supplies.
Due to the continuous increases in coal prices, coking coal market prices in China are still lower than production costs. In April, under the pressure of higher production costs, many coking coal producers incurred great losses. In order to secure normal operations and relieve the pressure on coking coal producers, the conference recommended a coking coal guideline price for May of RMB 2,050/mt FOT, including 17 percent VAT. The product in question has sulfur and ash contents up to 0.7 percent and 13 percent respectively.