The coke inventory of coking plants remained stable, while that of steel mills decreased significantly

SMM statistics showed that the coke inventories of coking plants were 264,000 mt this week, up 8,000 mt or 3.12% WoW. The coking coke inventories were 2.772 million mt, up 363,000 mt or 15.1% WoW. The coke inventories at steel mills totalled 2.452 million mt, down 74,000 mt or 2.93% WoW.
This week, downstream steel mills continued to resume production, coke demand continued to improve, and the operating rate of coking enterprises increased. In terms of inventory, due to the relatively strong performance of raw material prices and the relatively certain expectation of rising coke prices, coking companies replenished their coking coal inventories, and their coking coal inventories increased significantly. However, as there was no obvious improvement in the profits of coking enterprises, coking coal inventories still declined slightly. As for steel mills, their production was relatively active due to their good profits, and their coking coke inventories fell slightly. At the port, as bullish expectations for coking coke strengthened, traders' inventories increased significantly.
Looking ahead, due to strong bullish expectations for coke prices and a decent recovery in downstream demand, downstream steel mills may further increase their coke purchases for cost considerations, and steel mills' coke inventories may grow again. As for coking enterprises, since upstream coal prices were higher than coking coke, the profit recovery of coking enterprises was lower than expected, so the coke inventory of coking enterprises may remain stable. With the increase in coking coal prices, the purchasing willingness of coking enterprises may decrease, and the coking coal inventory of coking enterprises is expected to decline slightly.