WEEKLY: China steel mills, traders speed up coke buying

The scheduled resumption of some blast furnaces planned for next month, plus the need for mills to build winter reserves, resulted in booking activities for coke among Chinese steelmakers and traders firming over December 24-30, Mysteel's survey has found. Their coke stocks mounted over the same period too, the data show.

By December 30, total coke stocks at the 247 Chinese steel mills in Mysteel's survey had increased 38,000 tonnes or 0.6% on week to 6.9 million tonnes - enough to last the mills for 15.1 days at their present rates of consumption, shorter by 0.3 day on week and