Despite an uptrend in the futures market, sentiments in China's physical coking coal market have remained mixed. “I think China and probably the Asian steel and raw materials market may turn negative in the coming days. China seems really shaky,” a major international trader said commenting on the current developments. Consequently, Chinese steelmakers have preferred to be cautious in new coking coal bookings, though some foreign suppliers have continued to test the market with higher prices. In particular, a Russian coal company is reported to be seeking to get a price over $220/mt CFR China for Inagli coking coal. While two weeks ago offers at this level were considered overvalued, this week a few customers have stated that they would buy if they had not stocked up earlier. Meanwhile, SteelOrbis has learned of a deal for 21,000 mt of ex-Russia pulverized coal injection (PCI), produced by Mechel, at $234.10/mt CFR China, up $2.3/mt compared to the price in the previous tender in early November. In the meantime, ex-US offers of coking coal have remained out of Chinese steelmakers' range of interest despite a certain decline in prices. Accordingly, the latest offers of hard coking coal Buchanan, with December laycan, are at $290/mt CFR China, down around $30-40/mt compared to levels in early November.
As of Tuesday, November 29 coking coal futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) have settled at RMB 2,246/mt ($313.3/mt), up 2.6 percent compared to yesterday, November 28. Meanwhile, coke futures prices have increased by 2.3 percent to RMB 2,851/mt ($397.7/mt).
$1 = RMB 7.16615