China's domestic metallurgical coke prices have remained stable in some regions during the past week, while increasing slightly in other regions. Influenced by the increase in coking coal prices, domestic coking enterprises in all regions are inclined to raise their offers. However, demand from the steel mills is not so strong and inventories are high, and so coke prices are not likely to see significant increases.
Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Average price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Average price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Coke | 2nd grade | Shanxi | 1,640 | - | 245 | - |
Shanghai | 1,850 | - | 276 | - |
During the past week, there have been slight increases observed in some regions of China's domestic coke market. The mainstream quotations of second grade metallurgical coke from large scale producers in Shanxi Province have been at RMB 1,600-1,650/mt ($239-246/mt), with some prices seen at RMB 1,680/mt ($251/mt), while quotations for first grade metallurgical coke have been standing at RMB 1,750-1,800/mt ($261-269/mt). Meanwhile, the purchase prices of Hebei Province-based mills are at RMB 1,750-1,800/mt ($261-268/mt) for second grade metallurgical coke. The mainstream prices in the eastern China coke market are at RMB 1,850/mt ($276/mt), while prices in northeastern China are at RMB 1,750/mt ($261/mt), up by RMB 50/mt ($7/mt) week on week. In addition, the mainstream prices of coking coal in the overall domestic market have remained stable at RMB 1,450-1,550/mt ($209-224/mt), but rising as high as RMB 1,600/mt ($239mt) in some regions.
Since winter is coming, many steel mills and coking enterprises may start to prepare stocks for the winter season. The market transaction situation has in general improved compared to the previous week. On the other hand, due to the short supplies of coking coal, coking coal prices in all domestic regions have increased to some extent, causing a slight rise in coke prices especially in Henan Province and in the northeastern region.
In line with the increase in coking coal prices, coking enterprises are faced with greater cost pressure, and so they are inclined to raise their coke prices, though the steel mills are currently unwilling to accept higher prices. With the inventories of steel mills and coking enterprises quite high at present, steel mills are not ready to purchase coal in large quantities.