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

China's imported iron ore prices declined in both spot and futures markets during September 21-24, mainly pressured by weakening demand as steelmakers further trimmed production. Over the same period, domestic metallurgical coke prices held steady in the spot market, while coke futures declined amid expectations of a near-term price cut.

Last week, mounting losses prompted blast-furnace (BF) steelmakers in China to idle some furnaces for maintenance or reduce operating rates. During September 18-24, the average capacity utilization rate among the 247 BF steel producers under Mysteel's tracking slipped by 0.74 percentage point on week to 88.49%. Iron ore: By September