Will there be an eighth round after the seventh round of coke prices cuts? [SMM coal and coke analysis]

Last Thursday, the seventh round of coke price reduction was confirmed to have implemented. After the price reduction, the national average price of first-grade metallurgical coke- dry quenching coke was 2,120 yuan/ton. The average price of quasi-first-grade metallurgical coke-dry quenching is 1,980 yuan/ton. The average price of first-grade metallurgical coke-wet quenching is 1,740 yuan/ton. The average price of quasi-first-grade metallurgical coke-wet quenching is 1,658 yuan/ton.
The current round of price reduction for coke has seen seven rounds of price reductions since January 2, with a drop of 700-770 yuan/ton. From the demand, terminal steel consumption after the CNY was lower than expected, and steel mills were generally postponed. The blast furnace operating rate and pig iron production both dropped significantly compared with the same period last year, and the demand for coke shrank significantly.
According to SMM blast furnace operating rate data, on March 27, SMM blast furnace operating rate was 89.60%, a decrease of 4.45% year-on-year. The daily average pig iron output of steel mills in SMM’s survey sample stood at 2.1646 million mt last week, a drop of 108,700 mt.
On the cost, although the price of coking coal was relatively firm at the beginning of the year, the prices fell rapidly after the CNY, the operating rate of coking enterprises also decreased, and the enthusiasm of coking enterprises in purchasing coking coal was relatively poor. The price of main coking coal fell sharply under the pressure of downward demand.
Therefore, on the whole, under the effects of the difficulty in improving terminal demand and weak support on the cost, coke prices will continue to go down, and may usher in the eighth round of price cuts next week.