During the week ending January 20, average metallurgical coke prices in the Chinese domestic market have continued their downtrend, while transaction activity in the overall market has been at low levels. As of January 20, coke futures contract (1705) offers at Dalian Commodity Exchange closed at RMB 1,611/mt ($234/mt), down $12/mt week on week. Average coke prices in the local Chinese market are presented in the following table.
During the given week, coking coal and coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) have decreased, curbing speculative sentiment and exerting negative pressure on coke prices in the domestic spot market. Meanwhile, with around a week to go before the Chinese New Year holiday, there is no sign of an improvement in demand, which has also contributed to a weakening of sentiment in the market. It is thought that coke prices in the Chinese domestic market will edge down slightly in the week ahead.
| Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
| Coke | Second grade | Hancheng, Shaanxi | 1,700 | 247 | ↓50 |
| Zibo, Shandong | 1,880 | 274 | ↓50 | ||
| Pingdingshan, Henan | 1,850 | 269 | ↓50 | ||
| Tangshan | 1,850 | 269 | ↓50 | ||
| Huaibei, Anhui | 2,000 | 291 | ↓50 | ||
| Average | 1,856 | 270 | ↓50 |
17 percent VAT is included in all prices and all prices are ex-warehouse.
$1 = RMB 6.87