China coking coal falls on slump in steel demand (updated)

China Steel

Thu 08:35

Recasts leading paragraph, updates prices as of market close

    June 25 (Reuters) - Chinese coking prices pared earlier gains to trade lower on Thursday as a steel consumption slump fuelled concerns over demand prospects of steelmaking ingredients.
The apparent consumption of five major steel products sank by 6.5% week-on-week as of Thursday, versus a weekly gain of 3.1% in the prior week, data from consultancy Mysteel showed.
The weakening steel demand soured market sentiment, putting prices of steel and its feedstocks under pressure.
The most-traded coking coal contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) DJMcv1 closed daytime trade 0.88% lower at 1,238.5 yuan ($181.99) per metric ton. 
The most active DCE coke contract erased earlier gains to trade down 0.77% at 1,932 yuan a ton.
   However, the price losses were capped by slowing production recovery in the northern province of Shanxi, in the aftermath of a fatal mine accident in late May and the ongoing strict safety inspections in the coal-rich region.
   The pace of production recovery in Shanxi has somewhat slowed, with the number of coal mines that halted production in some areas on the rise, according to a Mysteel survey on Wednesday.
Coking coal prices had surged after the deadly mine accident triggered broad and stringent safety inspections across China's top coal production hub, fanning supply concerns.
Iron ore prices also lost ground, with the most-traded DCE iron ore contract DCIOcv1 closing daytime trade down 1.08% at 735 yuan a ton and the benchmark July iron ore SZZFN6 on the Singapore Exchange shed 0.88% at $97.5 a ton, as of 0800 GMT.
Steel benchmarks on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were weaker. Rebar SRBcv1 and hot-rolled coil SHHCcv1 lost 0.45%, wire rod SWRcv1 slid 1.06% and stainless steel SHSScv1 dropped 0.51%.
Daily crude steel output in June is expected to sit at around 2.7 million tons, analysts at consultancy Lange Steel said in a note, versus 2.72 million tons in May as per official data.

($1 = 6.8052 Chinese yuan)

 (Reporting by Amy Lv and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
 ((Amy.Lv@thomsonreuters.com;))