DAILY: China's met coke outlook dims, futures slump

With gathering pressures for the steel market and weakening cost support, expectations for a successful price hike on met coke eased further on January 20. In tandem with the dimmed outlook for spot market, futures prices also recorded the largest fall in more than a month.

On the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE), the most-traded met coke contract for May delivery closed Tuesday's daytime trading session at Yuan 1,673.5/tonne ($240.3/t), down 3.5% from Monday's settlement price. This daily drop was the steepest after a 5.8% slump was recorded on December 8 last year, according to the