During the week ending December 11, import quotations in China have moved up for premium hard coking coal and hard coking coal as suppliers from other countries rather than Australia have been increasing offers amid the tight supply in the market.
Quotations of premium hard coking coal from North America have reached $178/mt CFR, up $8/mt compared to last week. Prices for hard coking coal from Russia are at $132/mt CFR, up $2/mt over the past week.
Quotations of premium hard coking coal from Australia are equivalent to $114/mt CFR China, down $1/mt compared to last week. Hard coking coal prices are at $100/mt CFR. As the ban on Australian coking coal is still in effect in China, some cargoes have been resold from China to other countries.
Coke prices in Tangshan are at RMB 2,200/mt ($336.4/mt) ex-warehouse, moving up by RMB 50/mt ($7.6/mt) compared to the previous week, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
During the given week, coking plants’ capacity utilization rates have decreased amid the production halts within the scope of environmental protection measures in Shanxi Province, providing support for coke prices. Meanwhile, inventory of coke has continued to decline, bolstering coke prices. Demand from downstream steelmakers has been good amid increasing steel prices. At the same time, downstream users will build up stocks towards the end of the year. It is thought that coke prices in the Chinese domestic market will move up in the coming week.
As of Friday, December 11, coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) are at RMB 2,512/mt ($384/mt), decreasing by RMB 52/mt ($8/mt) or 2.0 percent compared to December 4.
$1 = RMB 6.5405
