Recently, coke prices remain stable with upward trend in North China's Hebei province.

1. Handan
Some producers raised the price by CNY 20 per tonne to CNY 1,850 per tonne to 1,870 per tonne.
Price of I grade metallurgical coke (A<12.5%) stands at CNY 1,870 per tonne
Price of II grade metallurgical coke stands at CNY 1,830 per tonne to CNY 1,850 per tonne

2. Tangshan
Price of I grade metallurgical coke (A<12.5%) delivered to local steel mills at CNY 1,980 per tonne to CNY 2,050 per tonne
Price of II grade metallurgical coke (A<13.0%) stabilizes at CNY 1,880 per tonne

3. Shijiazhuang
Price of I grade metallurgical coke (A<12.5%) remains unchanged at CNY 1,900 per tonne
Price of II grade metallurgical coke is flat at CNY 1,830 per tonne

4. Xingtai
The coking enterprises' ex-works price of I grade metallurgical coke (A<12.5%) and II grade metallurgical coke stands at CNY 1,910 per tonne and CNY 1,830 per tonne respectively.

Currently, parts of Tangshan-based coking enterprises hiked their price by CNY 30 per tonne to CNY 50 per tonne on limited stockpiles, but didn’t get nod of approval from steel mills with their contracts. The price of I grade metallurgical coke (A<12.5%, CSR>60) now comes at CNY 1,980 per tonne to CNY 2,000 per tonne and that of II grade metallurgical coke (A<13.0) at CNY 1,950 per tonne to CNY 1,970 per tonne.

Industry resources said some small sized steel mills would see blast furnace maintenance grind to a halt and thus began to place more orders for coke, which pushed up coke price in some parts of Tangshan. Statistics show that utilization ratio of blast furnaces in Tangshan increased to 98.05% last week, up 1.89 percentage points from a week earlier.

To know exact prevailing steel and raw material prices in China on daily basis, subscribe to services of SteelHome by sending a mail to admin@steelprices-china.com