SHANGHAI, Jun 19 (SMM) -
Coking Coal:
Recently, some varieties of coal have been short supply on the combination of smooth shipment of coal mines, constantly falling coking coal inventory as well as still suspended operation of some open-pit mines in Shanxi. Online bidding also showed signs of improving. As such, prices of some coal with relatively tight supply are about to rise. However, the prices currently remain stable with pressure from the policy side.
Coke:
On the supply side, the mainstream steel mills in Shandong and Hebei have agreed to the price hike of coke by 100 yuan/mt, indicating the success in the first round of coke price increase. The downstream purchased actively and the shipment of coking companies were also smooth, leading to low in-plant inventory of coking companies. On the demand side, pig iron output has been high while steel mills’ coke inventory was relatively low, resulting in high demand for coke.
To sum up, the continuously rising coking coal prices have aggravated the losses of coking companies, while the demand from steel mills and traders has been sound amid high pig iron output. In this scenario, coking companies have basically zero coke inventory, and coking prices are likely to rise in the near term.
