WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's iron ore prices weaken, spot coke rises further

Imported iron ore prices in China dropped across spot and futures markets during September 7-11, mainly reflecting subdued demand from steelmakers, who curtailed production in response to widening profit losses. Over the same period, domestic metallurgical coke prices increased further in the spot market as another price hike took effect, though coke futures prices fell markedly amid cooler market sentiment.

Last week, expanding losses on steel sales led Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers to reduce their production again. During September 4-10, the average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel producers under Mysteel's tracking slipped by 0.19 percentage point on week to 88.73%. Iron ore: On September 11, Mysteel PORTDEX