DAILY: China's coking coal market stays in weak balance

China's spot coking coal market remained in a weak balance as of February 4, with both coal availability and transactions entering a festival lull ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays starting in mid-February. Mysteel expects coking coal price movements to be less volatile in the near term.

On Wednesday, Mysteel's assessment of the national composite coking coal price settled at Yuan 1,281.2/tonne ($184.6/t) including the 13% VAT, down by Yuan 3.2/t from the previous session. Spot market liquidity for the steelmaking feed quietened further yesterday, as downstream steel mills and coke producers largely completed their coal hoarding for