MARKET TREND
The Met Coke market is not with strong buying activity as several steel mills in China are with sufficient stocks.
The buying is however expected to resume soon as steel production in China will turn into a full-fledged affair after 15Mar’18, when the curb in the steel production during the winter season will end.
Indian buyers also have moved to the sidelines as the international export offers were on a rising mode. However, buying in India is also expected to gain momentum as steel producers are not having excess inventories at hand.
In a communication with a trader in the Shanxi market, prices of Met Coke were learnt to be prevailing at around Yuan 1,870/MT. Besides, a Met Coke producer in China was heard to raise its ex-works price by Yuan 100/MT recently.
PRICE TREND
With Coking Coal prices depicting a rising trend, prices of Met Coke are also following the trend. Offers for the 64% CSR Met Coke have drifted upwards by around USD 5/MT to around USD 365/MT FoB China. However, offers for the 62% CSR Met Coke have not undergone any change from the week-ago rates, and hovered at around USD 355/MT FoB China.
Source: CoalMint Research
On CFR India basis, these offers translate into: USD 381/MT and USD 371/MT respectively.
As already mentioned, Indian buyers have postponed bulk purchases as the global offers were rising. According to the inputs gathered from the market, big players were purchasing but the small players refrained from buying due to the high prices.
In response to the rising international offers, one Met Coke producer in the east coast of India has raised its ex-works price by INR 1000-1,500/MT, while, a producer in the west coast has hiked its ex-works price by INR 500/MT. Other players have been monitoring the market movements before deciding on price revisions.
The current ex-works prices for the Blast Furnace grade in India are: INR 25,500-26,500/MT(east coast) and INR 26,000-27,000/MT (west coast).
Source: CoalMint Research
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