China's coking coal auction market had 268.9 Kt (mainly primary coking coal and raw gas coal) listed on Dec 29, and the unsold rate dived 14 pps from last Friday to 27%. The average closing premium for all sold lots expanded to 41.7 yuan/t. Yet, overall trade sentiment remained soft due to broadly cautious buying among coking plants. Steelmakers started to press for the 4th coke price reduction. Most sold lots experienced decreases ranging 2-20 yuan/t in settlements compared to previous levels, and individual resources with overly long auction intervals saw more pronounced drops. A few coal grades saw mild rises.