Thermal Coal

Production area Thermal coal prices continued to climb in major producing regions, with a few grades witnessing larger gains. Traders at railway stations and some end buyers became more active in purchases, fueled by the rise in portside prices and a leading mining group's upward adjustment of purchasing prices for third-party coal. Increased truck loadings prompted some miners to raise prices by 5-20 yuan/t. Some mines with steep price increases, however, met resistance from downstream buyers, forcing them to slightly cut prices. Despite recent increase in restocking demand, the purchases are in small volumes and may cap the extent of further hikes.

Northern port Portside prices were temporarily stable. Ascended offer prices hampered trading activity. Downstream buyers mostly kept a hard bargain, leading to deadlocked transactions. Rapidly growing mine-mouth prices worsened traders' losses in shipping coal from mines to ports, slowing stock accumulation at northern ports. Some traders believed that portside prices are less likely to slump in the near term, anticipating a swift rebound in coal consumption at coastal power plants as temperatures climb across southern China.

Import market The seaborne import market kept flat. Foreign traders' offer prices hovered high, with Indonesian 3,800 Kcal/kg NAR coal at $55/t FOB on a Panamax basis, leaving limited arbitrage room for domestic traders. Domestic utilities had high stocks and showed weak purchasing enthusiasm.

Coking coal

Most coking coal mines maintained normal operations. Some mines cut production or went into maintenance in the run-up to the third plenary session, leading to a slight drop in overall supply. Persisting declines in steel prices fueled wait-and-see sentiment among market participants. Coking plants mostly made on-demand restocking to maintain coking coal stocks, resulting in subdued offtakes at mines, especially for high-priced resources. Online settlements also cooled down recently. Yet, most miners faced no inventory pressure backed by rigid demand from coke and steel producers. The short-term prices are expected to remain stable, with only minor adjustments anticipated for certain grades.

The three major China-Mongolia border crossings will be closed for five days (July 11-July 15) during the Nadam Festival. Trading activity languished at Ganqimaodu border crossing due to weak consumption of steel products. Mongolian coal prices were temporarily stable, with Mongolian 5# raw coal under long-term contracts at 1,310-1,330 yuan/t, ex-stock Ganqimaodu with VAT.

Met coke

Coking plants were running at high capacity and accelerated offtakes buoyed by elevated molten iron output. Their coke inventories were low and the market was in a tight supply-demand balance. Weakening futures market and persistently falling steel prices exacerbated bearish sentiment in the coke market, prompting traders to expedite sales. However, spot transactions remained subdued as steelmakers largely refrained from making purchases due to weak steel demand.