Seaborne metallurgical coke prices have seen a sudden fall starting this week on weak demand.
Chinese domestic met coke prices soften starting this week as met coke demand remains low due to sufficient inventories kept by Chinese steel mills.
Chinese met coke export prices have seen a steep fall of USD 6/MT, FOB China. For the 64% CSR and the 62% CSR grades are currently assessed at around USD 353/MT and USD 340/MT FOB China respectively, down by USD 6/MT and USD 4/MT from the rates that prevailed in the last week (04 Mar-17 Mar’19).
Indian met coke import prices have also seen a gradual decrease of around USD 5/MT. For the 64% CSR and the 62% CSR grades prices are at around USD 366.5/MT and USD 353.50/MT respectively on CNF India basis.
Export price correction may not attract further trade
In the Chinese coke export market, offers have largely seen a sharp fall of USD 6/MT which has yet not incentivized trading. It is expected that coke demand is hard to improve as prices are not attractive yet. However, in case coke prices continue to see further 2-3 rounds of corrections, buying interest may return.
According to few traders, the tradable level was placed at around USD 330 /MT-USD 340/MT, FOB China for 62% CSR grade. The conversion spread between 64% and 62% CSR remained at USD 10-13/MT. Furthermore, the spread between each type of coke may narrow in a softening market.
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