Although sentiments in China's steel market have remained severely battered by relentless lockdowns, Chinese steelmakers have continued to go higher in their bookings of raw materials. the third round of metallurgical coke price hikes since the middle of November is actively discussed in the Chinese market.
Meanwhile, Russian coking coal suppliers have decided to take full advantage of the upbeat sentiments and consequently have increased their offers to China further. Specifically, SteelOrbis has heard of fresh offers for Inagli coking coal at $235-240/mt CFR China, with laycan not later than January 24, up around $15-20.mt from the previous levels, while offers for Deni Deep coking coal have settled at $240-245/mt CFR China compared to $238/mt CFR two weeks ago. “If speaking about the coming deals, it is realistic is to take the lower end for both,” an international trader stated.
The distant laycan in ex-US coking coal offers has remained the main reason for the lack of interest from Chinese customers. The latest ex-US offers of hard coking coal, Buchanan, have been heard at $290/mt CFR, while ex-US offers for premium hard coking coal are still at above $300/mt CFR.
In the meantime, as of Tuesday, December 6, coking coal futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) have settled at RMB 2,176/mt ($311.3/mt), down 1.09 percent compared to Friday, December 2. Meanwhile, coke futures prices have increased by 0.26 percent to RMB 2,826.5/mt ($404.4/mt).
$1 = RMB 6.98983