DAILY: Chinese steelmakers kick off third met coke price cut

Chinese steelmakers kicked off the third round of metallurgical coke price cuts on August 5, as their probability worsened amid persistently weak downstream demand. Although market sentiment for this steelmaking feed has improved modestly - supported by higher coal prices and expanded coke output reductions - the near-term outlook for the coke market remains clouded.

Mysteel Coke Index (MCI) CDQ, which tracks China's national dry-quenched quasi-first-grade met coke prices, stood flat from the last session at Yuan 1,892.6/tonne ($280.3/t) on Wednesday, while the MCI CWQ for wet-quenched quasi-first-grade met coke also remained unchanged at Yuan 1,740.4/t. Major steel mills in North China's Tianjin and Hebei