WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's iron ore prices strengthen, spot coke steady

Chinese prices for imported iron ore rose further in both spot and futures markets during March 9-13, as the geopolitical crisis in the Middle East continued to bolster freight rates while demand for the material was set to recover. During the same period, domestic metallurgical coke prices were largely stable in the spot market, while its futures prices gained grounds.

Over March 6-12, the average capacity utilization rate of blast furnaces among the 247 steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking dropped by 2.4 percentage points on week to 82.92%. The decline mainly reflected the production curbs on steelmakers in North China, which were not removed until late last week.