Coke prices pick up companies to increase production cautious

Although Da Futian was the off-season of the coke market, the price of coke that had been sluggish for half a year was recovering. Benefiting from the recovery of the downstream steel market, coke prices have experienced a period of tentative price hike, and current price increases have already occurred around the country.

"It is now a full-scale upswing, and some prices have risen more than once or twice." Analyst Du Hongfeng, an analyst at the Nisshin Shinkansen e-commerce company, told the "Daily Economic News" reporter a few days ago.

The fact that the comprehensive price increase for the coke market was also confirmed in the reporter’s interviews with a number of people in the industry. According to industry sources, the coke market is expected to continue its upward trend with the arrival of the gold, silver and silver season.

Coke prices are now rising in the late July after a month of rising steel prices. The coke market has experienced tentative price increases in some areas such as Shandong. After this, the trend of price increases spread. At the end of July, coking enterprises in Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, and Shanxi Province had generally raised their prices.

“Currently, coking companies have achieved a small price adjustment of 30-50 yuan, and have risen much more than 60 yuan.” Du Hongfeng said that the current price increase of coke has involved many regions, and covers coke and quasi-one Grade coke and secondary coke varieties. "Xuzhou has risen 70-80, and Shanxi prices have risen late, only rising by 30-50 yuan/ton."

Treasure Island coke industry analyst Guo Zhihong told reporters that since August, coke prices have risen especially sharply. "This is also due to the fact that many mills are pricing at the beginning of the month."

Guo Zhihong said that in the first half of this year, the coke market continued to decline. The price of coke before the current round of price increase has reached the limit that the company can bear. Once the steel market improves, the coke plant will be unable to wait for tentative price increases. In addition, with the continuous decline in the price of coke, the stocks of the steel mills have been relatively low. This round of price increases has been part of the traders began to pick up the goods, bottom out.

Du Hongfeng said that this round of coke price increase was indeed driven by the demand of downstream steel mills. Steel mills never stocked and stocked, which has a great demand. In the past two days, the prices of coking coal and coke ** have soared, and the daily increase has exceeded 2%.

According to news from the Great Wisdom News Agency yesterday, China's Shenhua primary coke and secondary coke prices were raised by RMB 30/t. After the price increase, the primary coke price was RMB 1,370/ton, and the secondary coke was RMB 1,260/ton (including tax acceptance. When the fire arrives at the station, the return fee is RMB 40/ton. Meijin Energy also recently raised its coke price by 30 yuan/ton.

Jiaoqi's cautiousness toward the future market For coking companies, especially for independent coking companies, the demand of downstream steel mills has been sluggish, and the price of coking coal in the upper reaches has been strong, causing many coking companies to fall into the category of “loss per ton of coke produced”. situation.

In May of this year, the Lincang City Committee of the Coking Industry in Shanxi Province had told Daily Economic News that the loss in the local coking industry had reached 90%, and continued for a long time.

Forced to stop production will have to face the frustration of the furnace scrapped, coking companies can only limit the maximum production.

After a short-term slight rise at the beginning of the year, the coke market quickly entered the decline channel for five months. According to statistics from the Business Club, coke rose from 1,537 yuan/ton at the beginning of the year to the highest price during the year at 1,612 yuan/ton, and continued to follow the downward path. As of July 23, coke fell to 1,165 yuan / ton, a drop of 27.73%.

As for the sustainability of this round of price rises in the coke market, Du Hongfeng said that most coking companies have already said they have lost money after coke prices have risen. “But even if profits are profitable, or if they are in a flat state.” With the pulling of downstream demand, coking companies have indeed increased production.

However, the company's response is not optimistic. Yesterday, a person in charge of a large-scale coking company in Shandong Province told the reporter of the “Daily Economic News” that the price of coke in Shandong was indeed the earliest increase. Currently, there have been three price increases of RMB 20/ton. “The surrounding coking companies did not lose money, but they are still cautious about increasing production because the coke production capacity is already in surplus. In fact, the company has not been optimistic about the improvement of the market.”