During the week ending May 15, import coking coal quotations in China have moved up due to stronger demand, following the price slump in earlier weeks.
Quotations of premium hard coking coal from Australia are at $124/mt CFR China, increasing by $6/mt compared to last week. Hard coking coal prices are at $98/mt CFR, up by $2/mt week on week.
Coke prices in Tangshan are at RMB 1,700/mt ($239.6/mt) ex-warehouse, moving sideways compared to the previous week, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
During the given week, coking plants’ capacity utilization rates continued to edge up, while demand from downstream users has been good. Meanwhile, steelmakers have been willing to conclude coke purchases due to their rising capacity utilization rates.
As of Friday, May 15, coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) are at RMB 1,776.5/mt ($250.4/mt), increasing by RMB 26.5/mt ($3.7/mt) or 1.5 percent compared to May 8.
$1 = RMB 7.0936
