After the strong rise in coking coal futures by the daily maximum limit during three days last week, the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) imposed trading limits on coking coal derivatives contracts on Friday, which resulted in a decline in futures prices on Monday. In particular, from July 29, non-futures-company members or clients shall not open more than 500 lots of positions in a single day for September contracts of coking coal futures. For other coking coal futures contracts, the daily position limit is set at 2,000 lots.
This resulted in today’s September coking coal futures falling by the maximum limit of 11 percent (down RMB 1,100.5/mt). “Today coking coal showed the reverse story compared to last week… and both coking coal and coke fell by the maximum limit. The steel market is hit by such a fall, with physical prices lower by RMB 10-50/mt,” a Chinese trader noted. A few other sources said that this was an expected reaction to the rapidly increasing market and in the near future the market should find a balance.
The ex-China billet reference price has settled at $445-450/mt FOB today, down by $7.5/mt on average from last week. Traders are expected to be more eager to sell this week after an almost full withdrawal last week. “Dexin sold at $450-453/mt FOB last week, so I think the Chinese price at $440-445/mt FOB will be accepted by buyers now,” a Singapore-based trader said.
