During the week ending January 8, import quotations in China have moved up significantly for premium hard coking coal and hard coking coal as major exporters have increased their offer prices, seeing still tight supply in the market. At the same time, a rising trend has been seen also in the local coke market in China.
Prices for premium hard coking coal from Canada have ended this week at $214/mt CFR, up by $17/mt compared to last week. Earlier this week, two deals for Canadian premium hard coking coal were done at $211/mt CFR and $209/mt CFR. Prices for lower hard coking coal from Russia are at $164/mt CFR, up $11/mt from last week.
Quotations of premium hard coking coal from Australia are indicatively at $114.5/mt CFR China, up $1.5/mt from last week. Hard coking coal prices are at $100/mt CFR, up $1/mt compared to the previous week. These prices are nominal as China has banned imports from Australia since October.
Coke prices in Tangshan are at RMB 2,500/mt ($386/mt) ex-warehouse, moving up by RMB 200/mt ($31/mt) compared to the previous week, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
During the given week, coking plants’ capacity utilization rates have increased, supporting prices. More Covid-19 cases in Hebei Province have negatively affected transportation of coke, thereby bolstering coke prices. At the same time, coking coal prices have increased, which has also exerted a positive impact on coke prices.
As of Friday, January 8, coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) are at RMB 2,922.5/mt ($452/mt), increasing by RMB 96.5/mt ($15/mt) or 3.4 percent compared to December 31.
$1 = RMB 6.4708