Demand growth in the coking coal market should be firm throughout 2018 after last year's market volatility due to Cyclone Debbie and shipment delays, SP Angel analyst John Meyer told Metal Bulletin in an interview.
Meyer took first place with fellow analyst Sergey Raevskiy in the coking coal leader board for the Apex 2017 competition. He notes that 2017 saw record iron production in China, 2.9% higher year on year, with output in other major market such as India and South Korea also growing stronger. "Coking coal in 2017 was a story of strong recovery in demand last year which has been exacerbated by supply disruption in the major producing regions," Meyer said. "Additionally, record global steel production (+5.3% year on year) on relatively broad based strong growth momentum including a...