Chinese Met Coke Prices Still Softening

Seaborne metallurgical coke import offers continued on a downward trend since the end of last week, as Chinese domestic coke prices saw a fourth round of price reduction recently proposed by some northern steel mills.

Under an obvious impact of weakness in steel market, met coke prices may continue to decline further in the short term due to successive price drops and squeezed margins of steel, which supported the steel mills to demand lower price from coking plants.

However, the price cuts in the met coke market has been partially met by resistance from coke producers to some extent due to tighter supply as potential restrictions on coking over the winter supported high CSR coke prices.

PRICE ASSESSMENTS

The latest import offers for the 64% CSR met coke are assessed at around USD 375/MT FOB China, lower by about USD 10.80/MT than the average price of USD 385.80/MT in the week gone by (26-30 Nov'18).

Similarly, offers for the 62% CSR met coke have decreased to around USD 367/MT FOB China.

For Indian buyers, these offers amount to USD 391/MT and USD 383/MT respectively on CNF India basis.