WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's steelmaking raw mat prices strengthen

Imported iron ore prices in China increased across spot and futures markets during August 24-28, following the rise in steel prices and supported by growing freight rates amid turmoil in the Middle East. Over the same period, spot and futures prices of metallurgical coke in the domestic market gained more steam, with the landing of two rounds of price hikes within a week.

Operations among Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers slipped further last week as some BFs were brought offline due to mills' widening losses and the shortage of certain feedstocks. During August 21-27, the average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel producers under Mysteel's tracking dropped by 0.41 percentage point