China coking coal retreats after govt pledges to probe into prices

BEIJING: Chinese coking coal futures pulled back from early gains and logged the first weekly losses in a month after Beijing said it would look into coal prices and crack down on speculations.

China’s state planner said on Friday afternoon that it had jointly launched an investigation into coal prices with the market regulator and will crack down on speculation and hoarding.

The most-traded coking coal futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, for September delivery, jumped 4.3percent in morning session to over a month high and closed down 1.4percent to 1,955 yuan ($303.48) a tonne. The contract fell 1.4percent for the week.

Other steelmaking ingredients also ended lower.

Benchmark iron ore futures dipped 0.2percent to 1,203 yuan a tonne.

Coke futures on the Dalian bourse fell 0.9percent to 2,694 yuan per tonne.

Steel prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, however, were traded higher, although data from Mysteel consultancy showed that apparent demand for steel products fell 4.8percent as of June.17 from the week earlier.