Seaborne metallurgical coke prices have been moving downward over the past few months, in line with falling global demand, mainly affected by the declining downstream steel industry.
Presently, Indian spot demand for seaborne metallurgical coke has been dampened by the prevailing bearishness in the domestic steel sector. It has been plagued by softer prices and higher input costs on the back of muted demand growth, owing to slowdowns in automobile, manufacturing and property construction.
Nevertheless, Indian end-users have resumed normal market activity following the delayed retreat of the monsoon rains in most parts of the country.
However, the commissioning of captive blast furnaces and coke ovens in India has resulted in lesser demand for imported metallurgical coke, particularly of Chinese origin.
As a result, China’s met coke exports have reduced considerably over the past few years. This is due in large part to the country’s growing domestic demand, as well as noncompetitive met coke prices in the export market.
Official customs data revealed that China exported 393,779 MT of metallurgical coke in September, down 10.69% month-on-month, and 25.83% year-on-year.
Further, China exported 5.16 MnT of met coke during January-September, which’s also down 26.41% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, Indian imports of metallurgical coke were recorded at 162,590 MT in August, down 67% year-on-year, and 49% month-on-month.
The largest met coke suppliers to India were Poland, China and Colombia.
PRICE ASSESSMENTS
Chinese met coke export prices for the 64% CSR and the 62% CSR grades are currently assessed at around USD 286.00/MT and USD 274.00/MT FOB China respectively, both the prices have decreased by USD 15/MT from the rates that prevailed last week (as on 17 Oct’19).
Indian met coke import prices for the 64% CSR and the 62% CSR grades amount to USD 289.00/MT and USD 272.00/MT respectively on CNF India basis.
India’s domestically produced met coke prices have remained unchanged over the past week.
The current ex-works prices of the blast furnace grade are hovering around INR 24,250/MT (east coast) and between INR 23,500 and 24,500/MT (west coast).
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