WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's steel raw mat prices weaken

Chinese prices for iron ore trended downward over February 24-28, as market sentiment was dampened by the anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese steel imports recently imposed by several countries. Meanwhile, metallurgical coke prices in the country also slipped further after steel mills had once again successfully cut their purchase prices for the feedstock.

Some mills brought their idled blast furnaces back onstream last week after completing maintenance works, with the blast furnace capacity utilization rate among the 247 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey inching up by 0.17 percentage point on week to average 85.58% over February 21-27. Iron ore: Mysteel SEADEX 62%