Over the past week, China's metallurgical coke market has been mainly stable, though prices in some regions have dropped slightly. The transaction volume in the steel market is poor, and steel inventories are high, and so steel prices are expected to trend down in the coming period. In the meantime, supplies of coke are at sufficient levels and inventories of coke are generally high.
In eastern China, the coke market has continued to fall slightly in the past week. Prices of washed coking coal from Shandong Yanzhou Coal Mining Group have declined, followed by price decreases from Linyi Coal Mining and Shandong Yulong Mining Group.
Meanwhile, in northern China the coke market has been basically stable in the past week, though with prices in some areas dropping slightly. At present, mainstream ex-works prices of second grade metallurgical coke in Shanxi are at RMB 1,750-1,800/mt ($267.2-274.8/mt), while prices of the same product in Hebei are at about RMB 1,850-1,950/mt ($282.4-297.8/mt).
In central and southern China, the current prices of second grade metallurgical coke from Lengshuijiang Steel, Hunan Province are at RMB 2,000-2,050/mt ($305.3-313/mt), while the prices of first grade metallurgical coke of Nanchang Steel are at RMB 2,100/mt ($320.6/mt), delivered to mills. Jiangxi Pingxiang Steel's price of first grade metallurgical coke is at RMB 2,170/mt ($331/mt), delivered to mills. The abovementioned prices show little change from the previous week. However, in Henan, the market prices of metallurgical coke have trended down, with mainstream prices of second grade metallurgical coke now standing at the level of RMB 1,900-1,950/mt ($290.1-297.8/mt).
Meanwhile, the coking coal market in the northeastern region has been stable during the past week, while supplies in the market have been quite abundant. The market in this region has not been strongly affected by the market trends in other regions, because of the following three reasons: firstly, its remote location; secondly, the demand for coking coal from local steel mills is almost entirely met by producers in the region; thirdly, coking coal mines in this region mostly belong to Heilongjiang Longmay Ming Group, with the result that this group exerts a strong influence on the local market prices.