During the week ending March 19, domestic coke prices have posted a further sharp drop, weakening sentiment in the import coking coal market.
Quotations of premium hard coking coal from Canada are at $218.5/mt CFR, down $0.5/mt compared to March 12, but bids are mainly below $210/mt CFR. Ex-Russia hard coking coal prices are at $160/mt CFR, remaining stable from last week.
Premium hard coking coal prices from Australia have remained under pressure, because of weak demand from India. They are equivalent to $132/mt CFR China, down $4/mt compared to last week. Hard coking coal prices from Australia translate to $116/mt CFR, down $3/mt compared to the previous week.
Coke prices in Tangshan are at RMB 2,200/mt ($338.5/mt) ex-warehouse, moving down by RMB 200/mt ($31/mt) compared to March 12, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
During the given week, coke prices have moved down amid the rises in inventory due to the production curbs in Tangshan. Bearish sentiments have prevailed among market players due to the slack demand for coke. At the same time, coking coal local prices have edged down slightly. It is thought that coke prices in the Chinese domestic market will move on a firm trend in the coming week due to the expected tightening of supply.
As of Friday, March 19, coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) are at RMB 2,253/mt ($347/mt), increasing by RMB 9/mt ($1.4/mt) or 0.4 percent compared to March 12.
$1 = RMB 6.5098