DAILY: China's coke market braces for fresh price hikes, sentiment in tentative recovery

China's metallurgical coke producers initiated the ninth bout of price hikes on June 24, shortly after the previous round materialized two days earlier. The overall sentiment has shown a tentative improvement from an earlier collapse, though market worries over steelmakers' affordability of the feed material persist.

Mysteel Coke Index (MCI) CDQ, which tracks China's national dry-quenched quasi-first-grade met coke prices, remained unchanged from the previous session at Yuan 1,946.4/tonne ($285.7/t) on Wednesday, while the MCI CWQ for wet-quenched quasi-first-grade met coke stood flat at Yuan 1,771.6/t, both including VAT. On Wednesday, major coke producers in North