During the week ending August 28, import coking coal quotations in China have moved sideways with demand limited. Some better demand has been seen in India, while it remained slack in Europe.
Quotations of premium hard coking coal from Australia are at $118/mt CFR China, remaining stable compared to last week. Hard coking coal prices are at $98/mt CFR.
Coke prices in Tangshan are at RMB 1,850/mt ($268/mt) ex-warehouse, keeping in line with that recorded in the previous week, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
During the given week, coking plants’ capacity utilization rates in China have seen slight rises amid sufficient orders from downstream users, while their inventories have been at low levels, which bolstered their sentiments towards prospect for the future market. Steelmakers’ capacity utilization rates have been at high level, which will provide certain support to coke market, while steelmakers’ shrinking profitability will negatively affect coke prices. It is thought that coke prices in the Chinese market will edge up slightly in the coming week.
As of Friday, August 28, coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) are at RMB 1,940/mt ($279.5/mt), increasing by RMB 9/mt ($1.3/mt) or 0.5 percent compared to August 21.
$1 = RMB 6.8891
