Prices of metallurgical coke variants declined marginally after rising steadily for the past two months, during which period Chinese coke prices had shot up remarkably. At this juncture, trading activity in the Indian market has softened with mixed ideas regarding future pricing among Chinese sellers and Indian buyers.
The marginal decline in prices recorded this week is seen as an effort on the part of the Chinese sellers to bolster exports in the short-term.
Notably, the global metallurgical coke industry is largely dominated by Chinese, Indian and Japanese companies. As the world’s leading steel producer, China has emerged as the largest consumer of metallurgical coke worldwide – the dragon nation accounted for a whopping 49% of the 1.7 billion metric tons of steel produced globally last year, according to data furnished by the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
The fall, however marginal, in China’s domestic and export coke prices can be primarily attributed to the decline in export activity due to surging prices throughout May-Jun’18, with overseas buyers shifting to other exporting sources. Reportedly, Indian buyers are scouting for alternatives to reduce reliance on expensive Chinese coke.
Chinese domestic coke prices had skyrocketed from the beginning of May, spurred by resurging blast furnace utilization rates in that country since the end of the winter caps in mid-March.
As the steel industry in China reshuffled, with mills resuming normal production post winter curtailments, the upsurge in downstream demand led to a rebound in global met coke prices.
On the pricing front, latest import offers for the 64% CSR Met Coke have decreased to around USD 372/MT FOB China, lower by about USD 2/MT than the rates that prevailed in the week gone by.
Similarly, offers for the 62% CSR Met Coke has come down to around USD 362/MT FOB China.
For Indian buyers, these offers amount to USD 388/MT and USD 378/MT respectively on CNF basis.
Source: CoalMint Research
Nevertheless, India’s domestically produced Met Coke prices have remained unchanged for the last two months, although several market analysts are projecting a rise in accordance with high import offers in the near future.
The current ex-works prices of the Blast Furnace grade are hovering around INR 26,000/MT (east coast) and between INR 27,000 and 28,000/MT (west coast).
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