WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's iron ore, coke prices continue to diverge

Chinese prices for imported iron ore extended declines in both spot and futures markets during June 8-12, as iron ore demand was dented by mills' shrinking profit margins while cost support for the commodity from freight rates also softened further with falling oil prices. In contrast, prices for domestic metallurgical coke in the two markets continued to rise over the same period, following the landing of another coke price hike.

Production among Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steel mills recovered slightly during the past week as some idled blast furnaces were brought back onstream after maintenance. The capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel producers under Mysteel's tracking rose 0.1 percentage point from the previous week to 90.3%. Iron ore: By