WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's major steelmaking raw mat prices inch up

China's spot prices for imported iron ore recorded a slight rise throughout the past week despite weakening fundamentals, chiefly supported by strong market demand for medium-grade ores, while spot prices for metallurgical coke were largely stable with a marginal uptick. In the futures market, prices for the two commodities continued to diverge, with iron ore futures contracts in Dalian strengthening slightly over the week, while coke contracts lost more ground.

Production at Chinese blast furnace (BF) steel mills dipped further last week, mainly as some mills in the country's southern regions started annual overhauls on their furnaces. The capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking dropped by another 0.6 percentage point on week