DAILY: China's coking coal market remained strong, outlook unclear

China's coking coal prices extended their gains through May 14. Some market participants remained quite positive about the near-term outlook, expecting coke producers to push for another hike in metallurgical coke prices. Others, however, cautioned that emerging weakness in the steel market could cap further gains in raw material prices, including both coking coal and met coke.

On Thursday, Mysteel assessed China's national composite coking coal price at Yuan 1,368.2/tonne ($201.3/t) including the 13% VAT, up another Yuan 1.4/t from the previous session. Notably, yesterday's increase was the smallest daily gain since May 6. The coking coal market largely remained firm yesterday, with more miners lifting offers