On July 24, SteelOrbis reported Chinese import met coke (64-65 percent CSR) offers to India down at $350-353/mt CFR India or approximately $332-335/mt FOB China. The decline in offer prices was attributed to the decline in global coking coal prices and soft demand from Indian buyers.
Sources inform SteelOrbis that as of July 31, met coke offers to India have continued trending down and are now reportedly at $337-340/mt CFR India or approximately $320-322/mt FOB China. In CFR terms, the price declined $13/mt.
The outlook is mixed on whether met coke will rebound over the next month as China announces additional mining and production output restrictions in various regions including cities in the Jiangsu province. A source commented that while a support in prices may start on the environmental announcements, it is now difficult to gauge the full effect on supply from the announcements. According to the World Steel Association, for example, China actually increased steel production from 425.42 million mt in H1 2017 to 451.15 million mt in H1 2018 through a year that production cuts were continuously announced. Met coke was under decreased production then production got back online recently. He added, “The assumption of some supply tightness on raw materials or balance in the market on environmental policies has been factored already and only less real availability, not the assumption of less availability, should affect prices in my opinion.”