India’s metallurgical (met) coke import prices have increased moderately over the past week amidst continued tightness in global supply resulting from persistently high demand in China.
However, Indian demand for seaborne met coke has remained largely subdued in recent months as most buyers refrained from importing spot material due to relatively softer domestic prices and ample material availability within the country itself.
CoalMint assessed the blast furnace (BF) grade met coke, with 64% coke strength after reaction (CSR), at $445/tonne (t) CNF India, up by $3/t (0.7%) on a w-o-w basis.
The 62% CSR BF grade met coke price also increased by $3/t (0.7%) w-o-w to $404/t CNF India.
Indian domestic met coke prices for the 25-90-mm BF grades are currently ranging between INR 28,000-29,000/t along the country’s east and west coasts respectively.
The latest price for domestic met coke with 12.5% ash in North China is assessed at CNY 2,780.00/t ($435.87/t), up by CNY 50/t ($5.71/t) on the week.
First round of coke price uptick accepted in China
In the Chinese domestic met coke market, the first round of price uptick by CNY 120/t, proposed by coke producers, has been widely accepted by major steelmakers in Shandong and Hebei provinces in North China.
Market participants anticipate that a few rounds of coke price hikes could be expected on the back of rising production cost and reduced supply availability amid ongoing environmental inspections.
However, outlook on coke prices in the longer term is presently uncertain as downstream demand is subjected to steel mills’ buying interest following governmental policies on production cuts.
China’s coking coal, coke futures jump on virus concerns
Chinese coking coal and coke futures rose on Wednesday, 4 Aug’21 as resurgent coronavirus outbreak in the country sparked supply concerns for the steelmaking raw materials.
The redeveloping pandemic situation would affect the turnover rate of coke and arrivals at mills and the direction of prices too. The recent outbreak also impacted the efficiency of inland transportation for coking coal.
Seaborne coking coal prices up on robust demand in ex-China markets
Export prices for Australian premium hard coking coal had been rising since May, as Asian customers were actively seeking prompt loading cargoes amidst steel demand recovery. Furthermore, European contract buyers of US and Canadian coking coals were heard to be procuring Australian material instead.
Meanwhile, the major ex-Australian coking coal supplying nations — such as Russia, Canada and the United States — have solely been exporting to China as it is the best destination in terms of prices now.
Outlook
India-bound seaborne met coke prices are likely to stay at elevated levels in view of the supply tightness resulting from China’s absence from the Asian export market.
Indian coke buyers are largely expected to stay out of the seaborne market as domestic prices are comparatively lower than the international prices, which have driven Indian coke exports lately.
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