WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's major steelmaking raw mat prices decline

Imported iron ore in China fell in both spot and futures markets during July 20-24, weighed down by its weakening fundamentals, while spot and futures prices of metallurgical coke in the country also trended lower over the same period, following the first coke price cut within the past four months.

China's blast furnace (BF) steelmakers further reined in their operations during the past week in response to deepening losses and lacklustre steel consumption. During July 17-23, the average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel producers under Mysteel's tracking fell by another 0.57 percentage point on week to