Thermal coal
Production area
Overall production maintained normal expect only several mines were disrupted by continued safety inspections. Mine-mouth prices continued to surge as cement, chemical plants, railway station traders and power utilities were active in restocking. Frequent price hikes slightly deterred coal trucks waiting to load coal.
Northern port
More traders became willing to sell, while no one undersold for now and no trade stroke at higher prices. Most sellers noted there is limited room for even a downward correction given high coal consumption at utilities. More attention should be given to subsequent policies.
Import market
Trading prices for Indonesian thermal coal steadily rose amid strong domestic demand, with Supramax 3,800 Kcal/kg NAR cargoes at $55/t FOB and 4,500 Kcal/kg coal at $77-78/t.
Coking coal
Some coal miners raised production after the relaxing of environmental inspections in May. Overall capacity utilization at coal mines surveyed by Sxcoal slid by 0.38 percentage point to 104.55%, down 9.81 percentage points year on year. Some miners limited shipment amid continuously falling stocks. At present, Anze low-sulfur primary coking was offered at 2,050 yuan/t, ex-washplant with VAT on banker's draft, up totaling 550 yuan/t since the Lunar New Year.
The customs clearance of coal trucks at Ganqimaodu continued to restore, but it was still difficult to effectively alleviate supply shortage at the border crossing. Offers of Mongolian 5# raw coal were at over 1,400 yuan/t, ex-Ganqimaodu with VAT.
Coke
Steel mills gradually accepted the seventh round of coke price hike. Operation rate at coking plants gradually increased along with the withdrawal of environment check panel. Concerns for coke production cut arose due to insufficient raw material supply. Steel mills noted it's hard to build up stocks given coke intakes were below daily consumption.
Spot offers declined at eastern ports after a sharp decline in futures.
(Writing by Rebecca Liu Editing by Emma Yang)
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