WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's iron ore prices decline, spot coke to gain strength

Chinese prices for iron ore weakened in both spot and futures markets during January 12-16, mainly pressured by a supply surplus. The futures prices of metallurgical coke also declined during the same period, but its spot prices were largely stable. Notably, some coke firms proposed to raise their coke selling prices, citing growing raw material costs.

The hot metal production at integrated steelmakers retreated last week, with some blast furnaces (BFs) halted for annual overhauls. The average capacity utilization rate of BFs among the 247 integrated steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking dipped by 0.56 percentage point on week during January 9-15 to reach 85.48%. Iron