During the week ending April 10, import coking coal quotations in China have moved down due to the slack demand in the global market and still ample supply, but overall firm buying from China has prevented prices from recording a sharp drop.
Quotations of premium hard coking coal from Australia are at $141.5/mt CFR China, decreasing by $5/mt compared to last week. Hard coking coal prices are at $127.5/mt CFR, down by $6/mt week on week.
Coke prices in Tangshan are at RMB 1,650/mt ($234.5/mt) ex-warehouse, moving sideways compared to the previous week, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
During the given week, Chinese coking plants’ capacity utilization rates have risen amid the looser environmental protection policy in China. Since steelmakers’ blast furnace capacity utilization rates have increased, inventories of coke on the coking plants’ side have decreased, easing the pessimistic sentiments among players in the coke market. Some coking plants have started to raise coke prices amid rises seen in coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE). However, coking coal prices have declined, which will slacken the support for coke prices.
As of Friday, April 10, coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) are at RMB 1,730/mt ($227.5/mt), rising by RMB 112.5/mt ($16/mt) or 7.0 percent compared to April 3.
$1 = RMB 7.0354
