WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's major steelmaking raw mat prices climb

China's spot prices for major steelmaking raw materials including imported iron ore and metallurgical coke strengthened during the past week. A slight recovery in steel consumption provided some support for iron ore prices, while coke firms succeeded in raising their coke selling prices for the fourth round since early October. In the futures market, however, prices for the two commodities diverged, with iron ore prices rising and coke prices losing ground.

Production at Chinese blast furnace (BF) steel mills dropped slightly last week, as the resumption of BFs in Northeast and North China failed to offset the impacts of overhauled BFs elsewhere. The capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking averaged 88.58% during November