Hebei Tianzhu Steel to Conduct 2-Day Maintenance on 1780m³ Blast Furnace, Impacting Hot Metal Output

On July 23, 2026, China’s coking coal market remained divided as thin trading and cautious buying limited price momentum, while ongoing safety inspections and delayed mine restarts in Shanxi kept some coking coal grades in relatively tight supply. The imbalance between weak demand and constrained supply contributed to mixed coking coal prices, while coke prices continued to decline.

On July 20, 2026, China’s steel sector was described as still “keeping its head above water,” with first-half crude steel output declining 3% year on year to 499.95 million tonnes. Persistent weakness in the property sector, including an 18% drop in real estate investment and a 23.4% decline in construction starts, points to subdued steel production, which could continue to weigh on coking coal demand and limit upside for coking coal and coke prices.

[SMM Steel] Market feedback: For September-shipment Q195B hot-rolled substrate, the CFR price was concluded at $512/mt, with Jingtang Port as the loading port and Pakistan as the destination country.