DAILY: China's met coal market stays on downward track

The outlook for China's metallurgical coal market was still downbeat on December 30, as downstream coal users still showed ebbed interest in replenishing more feed coal. On Monday, the national composite coking coal price under Mysteel's assessment came in at Yuan 1,290.6/tonne ($176.4/t) including the 13% VAT, slipping by another Yuan 9.2/t on day.

The domestic steel market has been persistently dampened by sluggish consumption of steel in the ongoing slack season, which has constrained production enthusiasm among most steelmakers and dented their buying interest in the feed coal as well, Mysteel learned. Moreover, there are growing market expectations that steel mills will request