WEEKLY SUMMARY: China's iron ore prices rangebound, spot coke stable

Imported iron ore prices in China moved within a narrow range during September 14-20, under the pressure from subdued demand and weakening cost support against falling shipping rates. Over the same period, domestic metallurgical coke prices held largely steady in the spot market, but coke futures fell markedly as market sentiment cooled further.

Chinese blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers brought some idled furnaces back online last week, though their financial strains persisted. During September 11-17, the average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel producers under Mysteel's tracking rose by 0.5 percentage point on week to 89.23%. Iron ore: On September 20, a makeup