DAILY: China's coking coal softens further, sentiment cool

China's spot coking coal market softened further on January 5, pressured by downstream buyers' lackluster interest in restocking the steelmaking material as they stayed cautious in lifting production. Market sentiment remained cool, with most players still sitting on the sidelines, closely monitoring market developments.

Mysteel's assessment of the national composite coking coal price shed another Yuan 6.4/tonne ($0.9/t) from the last session to sit at Yuan 1,252.3/t including the 13% VAT on Monday. In North China's Shanxi, 12 coking coal deals were concluded lower by Yuan 1-60/t yesterday, while only one deal registered a