Hebei Clean Coal Market Stable

The Hebei clean coal market has remained stable in recent days with a decent amount of transactions made. However, stockpiles are on the rise and coking enterprises' production costs are still than their selling price.

At present the steel market remains gloomy. Domestic steel mills and coking enterprises have switched their attention to overseas coking coal which remains at some CNY 1,150 per tonne, CNY 100 per tonne lower than that in the Hebei area, in the hope of driving domestic coal price down.

Although domestic coking coal is in tight supply, the coking coal price is believed to be higher than it should be. Coking enterprises are now being squeezed by weakened downstream demand and high production costs. It is predicted that the clean coal price will come down to a certain level in April.

At present, main coking coal in Tangshan is at CNY 1,250 per tonne fat clean coal at CNY 1,250 per tonne, 1/3 coking coal at CNY 1,250 per tonne. In Handan, main coking coal remains at CNY 1,270 per tonne fat clean coal at CNY 1,320 per tonne. In Xintai, 1/3 coking coal stands at CNY 1,300 per tonne with all the prices FOT and including tax.

Source: Steel Guru