China coking coal, coke futures plunge on fears of regulatory controls

BEIJING: Chinese coking coal and coke futures tumbled more than 6% on Tuesday, falling for a third straight session on concerns over more government controls to stabilise prices and ensure supplies.

In the first ten days of September, coking coal and coke prices surged 19% and 11.6%, respectively, compared with the last ten days in August, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

“(Investors) should be cautiously trading given uncertainty of policy in the future,” analysts with SinoSteel Futures wrote in a note. “Recently affected by environmental inspections, energy consumption controls and crude steel production cuts, both supply and demand of coke fell.” The most-active coking coal futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, for January delivery, slumped as much as 6.6% to 2,670 yuan ($414.09) per tonne in morning trade. The contract was down 2.5% at 2,787 yuan as of 0245 GMT.

Coke futures declined 2.8% to 3,427 yuan a tonne, after falling as much as 6.2% earlier. Steel on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was also driven by a drop in raw material prices.

Construction used rebar dipped 0.6% to 5,654 yuan a tonne. Hot rolled coils, used in cars and home appliances, slipped 1.3% to 5,799 yuan per tonne. Stainless steel futures on the Shanghai bourse fell 1.9% to 19,080 yuan a tonne.

Benchmark iron ore futures on the Dalian exchange edged 0.8% lower to 716 yuan a tonne. Spot prices of iron ore with 62% iron content for delivery to China fell $4.5 to $127 a tonne on Monday, according to SteelHome consultancy.

China’s southwest Yunnan province asked local producers to restrict output on steel, aluminium and other materials. Part of the planned production in September would be postponed to the last two months of the year.