WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's iron ore prices rangebound, coke weakens

China's prices for iron ore remained rangebound in the spot market over February 10-14, primarily supported by its relatively healthy fundamentals, while the country's spot metallurgical coke prices were weighed down further by steelmakers' new price cuts on the feed material.

The blast furnace capacity utilization rate among the 247 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey slipped to an average of 85.6% during February 6-13, ending a three-week increase. The drop was mainly caused by the maintenance stoppages of blast furnaces in some mills that suffered shrinking profit margins, sources