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

Chinese prices for imported iron ore tracked apart in the spot and futures markets last week, with the former dropping slightly, while the latter recorded a marginal rise. The iron ore market remained volatile amid rising hot metal output and concerns over protracted Middle East tensions. Meanwhile, spot prices of metallurgical coke in China were flat over the past week, while its futures prices increased with a pending price hike.

Chinese blast furnace (BF) steelmakers continued to increase their operations as more BFs restarted after environmental production-driven production restrictions were lifted. Over March 20-26, the average capacity utilization rate of BFs among the 247 steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking increased by 1.1 percentage points on week to reach