During the week ending May 8, import coking coal quotations in China have moved down further after the sharp drop seen last week due to oversupply in the global market amid the ongoing negative impact from the coronavirus pandemic worldwide, which resulted in more coking coal arriving in China. However, supply worries and stable demand from China have slowed down the price decrease.
Quotations of premium hard coking coal from Australia are at $118/mt CFR China, decreasing by $14/mt over the past two weeks. At the same time, compared to late last week prices for high quality coal have not fallen much, which has been partly because of good demand from China. Also this week, major miner Anglo American has been forced to halt the Grosvenor coking coal mine in Queensland which is capable of producing 5 million mt per year following an explosion which killed five people.
Hard coking coal prices in China are at $96/mt CFR, down by $21/mt over the past two weeks and down $6/mt since last week.
Coke prices in Tangshan are at RMB 1,700/mt ($240.1/mt) ex-warehouse, moving up by RMB 50/mt ($7.1/mt) compared to the previous week, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
During the given week, coke prices have moved up amid the resumption of high-speed road tolls (which were free of charge previously due to the outbreak of the coronavirus) as of May 6. Meanwhile, demand for finished steel has improved, exerting a positive impact on coke demand. However, coking plants’ capacity utilization rates have been at relatively high levels, resulting in sufficient supply, which will limit the rising trend of coke prices in the near future. At the same time, coking coal prices have moved down sharply, which will weaken the support for coke prices from the cost side.
As of Friday, May 8, coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) are at RMB 1,750/mt ($247.2/mt), increasing by RMB 57/mt ($8.1/mt) or 3.37 percent compared to April 30.
$1 = RMB 7.0788