CHINA’S steelmaking raw materials fell yesterday as demand remained weak, with coking coal and coke prices tumbling more than 4 percent, while benchmark iron ore futures slipped after logging gains last week.

Weekly steel production at China’s major steel firms stood at 8.9 million tons last week, down 2.5 percent from a week earlier, data from Mysteel consultancy showed.

“Average daily molten iron output remained at historical lows ... however, coke inventories at mills are higher than same period in previous years,” analysts with SinoSteel Futures wrote in a note.

With crude steel production control policy likely to be continued in the mid and long term, coking coal prices have further room to decline and coke demand will be hard to recover to high levels, SinoSteel Futures said.

The most actively traded coking coal futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange for May delivery fell as much as 4.8 percent to 2,177 yuan (US$341.68) a ton before ending down 4.2 percent at 2,190 yuan per ton.

Coke futures on the Dalian exchange closed down 6.2 percent at 2,936 yuan a ton. They shed as much as 6.8 percent earlier in the session.

Benchmark iron ore dropped 3.3 percent to 683 yuan per ton, reversing the gains in both the futures and the spot market last Friday. Spot prices of 62 percent iron ore for delivery to China rose US$2.5 to US$127.5 a ton Friday, according to SteelHome consultancy.

Steel prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were mixed.

Steel rebar for construction use slipped 4.6 percent to 4,307 yuan a ton and hot rolled coils futures dived 4.5 percent to 4,413 yuan per ton.

Shanghai stainless steel futures, for February delivery, inched 0.1 percent higher to 16,720 yuan a ton.

Profits earned by China’s industrial firms rose 9 percent on an annual basis in November, slowing down from a 24.6 percent growth in October, data from the statistics bureau showed. (SD-Agencies)