WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's steelmaking raw mat prices post broad decline

Chinese prices for major steelmaking raw materials including iron ore and metallurgical coke lost ground in both spot and futures markets last week, mainly as soft market sentiment caused by a lack of positive macro news, together with weak steel production, weighed on ferrous prices. Notably, steelmakers succeeded in cutting their coke buying prices again, the second time within this month.

More blast furnaces (BFs) were halted last week either for year-end maintenance or to reduce environmental pollution as mandated by authorities. The average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking dropped further during December 5-11 to 85.92%, down by another 1.16 percentage point on