Prudent downstream procurement weighed on coking coal markets across China's main production areas, even as year-end output curbs and stringent safety and environment inspections restricted supplies.

Overall coking coal supply continued to tighten this week, due to increasing miners completing their annual production tasks.

Several miner sources in Shanxi reportedly planned short-term suspensions around year-end, constrained by strict production targets and regulatory overproduction inspections.

"Our mine remains idle and may not resume until mid-January," said one miner source in the same province.

Overall demand remained subdued, with restocking activity limited to selective buying by a few coking plants. Coking coal prices, as a result, followed a range-bound, "weakly stable" trend, characterized by targeted corrections and pockets of isolated resilience.

Coke producers, traders, and washing plants were prudent in general. While some coking plants operated at relatively high capacity, they kept a conservative approach to feed coal purchases due to thin margins or even minor losses following the third coke price reduction, as well as steel mills curbing intake.

"We're running at full tilt yet barely breakeven. Coking coal prices may have hit bottom, but any rebound will be difficult to sustain," a Shanxi-based coke maker source stated. They plan to keep feed coal inventories for about one week of use and have no plan to aggressively restock.

A second coke producer source, running at 70-80% capacity and holding stocks enough to cover 4-5 days, deferred large-volume purchases until January in anticipation of additional coke price drops in the weeks ahead.

"We're not stocking up as end buyers are not keen to buy, with only hand-to-mouth procurement," one Shanxi-based coal trader source admitted.

Transaction activity of coking coal saw some improvement in recent days, driven by increased replenishment for backbone or cost-effective grades from low-stocked coking plants.

The overall market remained soft, and some mines continued to trim offer prices due to unfavorable sales. Some blending coal resources were adjusted down by 20-30 yuan/t amid mounting inventory pressure, Sxcoal learned.

In Yan'an of Shaanxi, some mines lowered prices of washed gas coal by 30 yuan/t to 840 yuan/t on December 23, ex-washplant with VAT, sending the total decline since November to 150 yuan/t.

In Luliang of Shanxi, some lean coal cargoes found traction after price cuts, while some primary coking coals saw limited appetite post-price hike, leading to minor corrections this week.

One Hebei-based miner source disclosed that long-term contract prices for coking coal supply are likely to be revised downward, with steel mills actively limiting shipments.

On December 24, the CCI index for Shanxi low-sulfur primary coking coal was steady day on day at 1,567 yuan/t, ex-washplant with VAT. The CCI indexes for mid- and high-sulfur primary coking coal stood stable at 1,230 yuan/t and 1,219 yuan/t, respectively.

Dragged by bleak end-user demand, China's Ganqimaodu border port witnessed sparse inquiries and muted transactions on imported Mongolian coking coal. Prices for Mongolian 5# raw coking coal stood at approximately 960-980 yuan/t, ex-stock with VAT.