WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's iron ore prices continue rising, spot coke stable

Chinese prices for imported iron ore gained ground in both spot and futures markets during January 4-9, as bullish market sentiment outweighed weak iron ore fundamentals to drive up the prices. Meanwhile, futures prices of metallurgical coke also climbed over the same period, but its spot prices remained flat.

The hot metal production at integrated steelmakers continued to recover last week, with some blast furnaces (BFs) returning to full-capacity operations. The average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking went up by 0.78 percentage point on week during January 1-8 to reach