Conforming to the speculations, Met Coke prices have been moving continuously upwards, being driven by the rising Coking Coal prices, and supply tightness in China. Given the market speculations, prices of Met Coke are likely to continue the uptrend until the start of the Chinese Lunar Year in Feb’18.
Offers for the 64% CSR Met Coke are reported at around USD 360/MT FoB China, a rise of around USD 22.5/MT over the week-ago offers. At the same time, offers for the 62% CSR Met Coke are also reported higher by around USD 22.5/MT, at around USD 350/MT FoB China, against the offers in the week last.
Source: CoalMint Research
For Indian buyers, these offers translate into: USD 378/MT and USD 368/MT respectively on CFR India basis.
The rise in the export offers has prompted the buyers to purchase the material before the offers go further up. Indian buyers have purchased fervently in view of the rising offers.
Responding to the rising export offers, Indian Met Coke producers have implemented price hikes. After the price hikes implemented in the week last, one producer in the west coast of India was heard to have further raised its ex-works price by INR 500/MT.
The current ex-works prices for the Blast Furnace grade in India are: INR 25,000/MT (east coast); and INR 27,000/MT, INR 27,500/MT and INR 32,500/MT(west coast). The prices in the country are expected to rise further up.
Source: CoalMint Research
Despite the buying propensity, imports have remained insignificant as buyers preferred domestic purchases. During the 1-18Dec’17 period, only 99,360 MT of Met Coke was imported in India, data compiled by CoalMint Research shows.
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