[SMM Coking Coal and Coke Daily Brief] 20260916

[SMM Daily Coke and Coking Coal Briefing]

Coking coal market:

Linfen low-sulphur coking coal was quoted at 2,550 yuan/mt.

On the coking coal front, production resumptions on the supply side have been slow, constrained by compliance supervision, resulting in resumed production without corresponding output. Although Shanxi province has required provincial energy enterprises to accelerate production resumptions while ensuring safety, with policy shifting toward supply assurance, there is a clear time lag in production release, and short-term growth is limited. Downstream restocking on an as-needed basis, combined with overall low inventory, has kept supply and demand in a tight balance, and coking coal prices are likely to consolidate in the short term.

Coke market:

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

On the supply side, after five consecutive rounds of coke price increases, coke enterprises' per-mt losses have narrowed significantly, production enthusiasm has rebounded, coke supply has shown marginal growth, downstream procurement remains active, and coke inventories at coke enterprises remain low. On the demand side, steel mills are currently generally in the red, and their willingness to accept a sixth round of coke price increases is weak, intensifying the steel-coke tug-of-war. However, China's hot metal production remains high, providing support for coke demand, and with the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays approaching, some steel mills with low inventory still have restocking needs. Overall, the approaching holidays have prompted steel mills to maintain baseline procurement, but constrained by their own losses, steel mills lack stockpiling behavior, causing the pace of the sixth round of coke price increases to slow down, and coke prices are likely to consolidate at highs in the short term. [SMM Steel]