Seaborne coking coal prices ended the week higher amid a strengthening market for metallurgical coke in China and a pick-up in buying activity among traders.
A cargo of premium mid-vol hard coking coal was traded at $197 per tonne fob Australia, market sources said on Friday June 8. This follows a transaction involving similar materials that was concluded at around $200 per tonne cfr China a day earlier. "We do have demand for premium category seaborne materials but we want to wait it out for another two weeks to gauge if the rally will continue," a Chinese coke producer source said. The source indicated that metallurgical coke prices in China might soften toward the end of the month with the easing of government-imposed pollution controls that would see production return to normal levels. Metallurgical...