DAILY: Tepid demand still weighs on China's coking coal market

China's coking coal market remained soft on December 24, pressured by persistently tepid restocking demand as downstream plants kept operating at low rates. Many market players expect coal prices to stay rangebound in the absence of firm support, Mysteel learned.

Mysteel's assessment of the national composite coking coal price shed another Yuan 2.4/tonne ($0.3/t) from the last session to sit at Yuan 1,282.6/t including the 13% VAT on Wednesday. Spot trading activity for the feed coal was still curbed by lackluster downstream demand and inactive speculative interest. Market sources ascribed