China's coking coal market witnessed divergent inventory trends across different grades in key producing regions. Prices remained range-bound, lacking the momentum to break decisively higher or lower. 

Downstream buyers adopted a cautious stance, selectively replenishing those coking coals that are either cost-effective or urgently needed. Several competitively priced backbone grades secured more deals and even braced for pre-sold orders, but other higher-priced or less desirable coking coals continued to accumulate at mines.

This came as coke producers, still facing profit pressure, anticipated further declines in coke prices and showed little appetite for aggressive restocking before the New Year's Day.

As of December 24, stocks of raw coking coal at 363 mines surveyed by Sxcoal stood at 2.46 million tonnes, down 1.95% week on week, according to the latest weekly survey. By contrast, washed coking coal inventories at these mines increased 1.20% from the week before to 2.05 million tonnes.

While production remained relatively stable with expectations of near-term tighter supply, coal inventories began to climb, especially for those mines with long-term contract pricing, miner sources noted.

One source at a washing plant based in Shaanxi reported 20,000 tonnes of unsold coal, citing weak downstream buying. "We're beginning to lose money due to slack sales, and trading activity is unlikely to improve in the run-up to the holiday," he added.

Spot prices across coking coal grades were range-bound, exhibiting limited movements or staying temporarily steady. In Yan'an of Shaanxi, prices for Huangling gas coal (S 0.5%, A 8%, V 33%, GRI 65) fell 30 yuan/t to 870 yuan/t free-on-rail, effective December 25, Sxcoal learned.

A Shanxi-based miner source noted new orders remained resilient after the recent price hike. However, they ruled out further hikes, noting that only minor downward adjustments for specific grades seem possible.

Some other sources in the province reported improved dispatches after price cuts, believing that current price levels may hold into early January.

"Our high-sulfur coking coal lacks competitiveness and may further dips, while low-sulfur cargo gains some support due to its scarcity," said another Shanxi-based miner source.

In the online auction market, a large miner in Qipanjing of Inner Mongolia put high-ash fat coal (S 0.8%, A 15%) for sale at 970 yuan/t on December 25 and closed the trade at 1,000 yuan/t, down 10 yuan/t from the preceding month. The miner also concluded a deal of low-sulfur fat coal (S 0.8%, A 12%) at 1,140 yuan/t, also down 10 yuan/t. Its mid-sulfur fat coal (S 1.0%, A 15%) settled at 990 yuan/t after starting at 960 yuan/t.

Traders also took a wait-and-see approach in light of slightly volatile futures prices and spot market uncertainties. On December 25, the most-traded coking coal futures contract for May 2026 delivery on the Dalian Commodity Exchange ended the daytime session at 1,124 yuan/t, unchanged from a day ago.

As for the import market, sentiment marginally improved at China's Ganqimaodu border port, with several Mongolian 5# raw coking coals traded at 960-1,000 yuan/t, ex-stock with VAT. However, end buyers remained cautious, and actual transaction volumes at the port were muted.

Seaborne prices for forward-delivery Australian premium coking coal continued to be supported by anticipated rainfall-disruptions, but still lost its price edge compared with Chinese equivalents, sapping domestic buyers' interest.

The price of Linfen and Changzhi low-sulfur primary coking coal (S 0.5%, G 80-85) from Shanxi was 89.65 yuan/t lower than the similar-quality Australian hard coking coal on a delivered to Tangshan basis, according to Sxcoal's calculations on December 24.