[SMM Coking Coal and Coke Daily Brief] 20260915

[SMM Daily Review on Coking Coal and Coke]

Coking coal market:

Linfen low-sulphur coking coal was quoted at 2,620 yuan/mt.

For coking coal, supply resumptions have been slow. Constrained by compliance requirements, coal mines have resumed production without restoring output. Although Shanxi province has required provincial energy enterprises to accelerate production resumptions while ensuring safety, with policy shifting toward supply protection, it will still take time for policy-driven production release to materialise. In the short term, coking coal prices may fluctuate at highs.

Coke market:

The nationwide average price of quasi-first-grade metallurgical coke (dry-quenched) was 2,420 yuan/mt.

In terms of supply, after five consecutive rounds of coke price increases, coke enterprises' per-tonne losses narrowed significantly, production willingness improved somewhat, and supply showed marginal growth. However, downstream purchases were active, and coke enterprises maintained low inventory operations. On the demand side, steel mills were generally loss-making, leading to insufficient willingness to accept further coke price increases. The steel-coke game intensified, but hot metal production remained at highs, providing rigid demand support for coke, and some low-inventory steel mills still had restocking demand. In summary, although coke cost support is strong, downstream resistance sentiment is increasing, the pace of the sixth round of price increases has slowed, and coke prices may consolidate at highs in the short term. [SMM Steel]