MARKET TREND
The Met Coke market has continued to remain soft, with prices continuing to slide in the absence of demand.
The slowdown in the steel market in China is primarily responsible for the softening of Met Coke demand. Steel makers there have high inventories of Met Coke, and at the same time, their plants were running at low rates due to the lackluster steel demand—contributing towards the soft demand for Met Coke.
In a communication with a trader at the Shandong market of China, prices of Met Coke were learnt to be at around Yuan 1,860/MT, which were stable as demand was soft.
The future dynamics of the market remain uncertain.
In India, Met Coke buyers have postponed purchases in view of the declining prices of the material in China—the prime export market globally.
PRICE TREND
International offers for Met Coke have slid further on account of the sluggish demand. The latest offer for the 64% CSR Met Coke was assessed at around USD 345/MT FoB China, down by around USD 7/MT over the offer assessed in the last week. In a similar trend, the recent offer for the 62% CSR Met Coke was assessed lower by around USD 7/MT, against the week-ago offer, at around USD 335/MT FoB China.
Source: CoalMint Research
On CFR India basis, these offers translate into: USD 361/MT and USD 351/MT respectively.
As heard in the market, the Indian Met Coke producers are bracing up to lower their ex-works prices in the coming days due to the weak demand and falling offers.
In the west coast, a Met Coke producer has recently revised its ex-works price downwards by INR 1,500/MT. Other Indian producers are expected to follow suit soon.
Source: CoalMint Research
The ruling ex-works prices for the Blast Furnace grade in India are at: INR 25,500/MT(east coast) and INR 25,500-27,500/MT (west coast).
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