Met Coke Offers Continue to Stoop as Market Becomes Quieter

MARKET TREND

The Met Coke market in India is undergoing a quite phase with buyers postponing purchases in view of the falling export offers from the key international market, China.

In China, the demand for Met Coke has turned soft as the steel makers there were not in a hurry to buy. Steel makers there already have sufficient stocks of inventories and at the same time their plants were running at low rates, ruling out the necessity for immediate buying. At the same time, the falling Coking Coal prices have prompted them to wait for the price to come to the lowest possible levels.

In a communication with a trader at the Shandong market of China, market prices of Met Coke were learnt to remain steady at around Yuan 1,860/MT in the absence of demand.

In India too, the buyers are waiting to the export offers to decline to the lowest before resuming active purchases.

PRICE TREND

Offers for Met Coke have continued exhibiting the slipping trend under the influence of the sinking Coking Coal prices.

Offers for 64% CSR Met Coke have fallen to around USD 352/MT FoB China, down by around USD 8/MT over the week-ago offers. Likewise, offers for the 62% CSR Met Coke came down by around USD 8/MT, to around USD 342/MT FoB China, against the offers in the week last.

Source: CoalMint Research

On CFR India basis, these offers amount to: USD 368/MT and USD 358/MT respectively.

It is due to the sluggish demand condition, Indian Met Coke producers found no reason to revise their prices. Given the continuous fall in the export offers, the Met Coke producers in India are expected to reduce their ex-works prices.

Source: CoalMint Research

The ruling ex-works prices for the Blast Furnace grade in India are at: INR 26,500/MT(east coast) and INR 26,000-27,500/MT (west coast).

IMPORTS

Met Coke imports in India have remained low, mainly due to the lackluster market atmosphere, with buyers adopting wait-and-watch stance in view of the sinking export offers. According to the data compiled by CoalMint Research, around 332,163 MT of Met Coke was imported in India during the 1-23Mar’18 period.