China coke production in Jul remained at 31.88 million tons up by 158,500 million tons or 0.4% MoM and almost the same as in June. It remained 1.89 million tons higher or 6.3%YoY and the growth rate was down by 0.3%MoM compared with June.
In the H2 of the year, China steel market has warmed up, thus driving up the demand for coke and the price of coke as well. So far almost all coke plants in China have been producing with full capacities. As a major coke producing province, Shanxi's coke capacity reached 7.69 million tons in July dropping 100,500 million tons or 1.3%YoY indicating that the downgrade is easing.
In July, Hebei province produced 4.33 million tons of coke, Shandong 2.66 million tons, Liaoning 1.64 million tons, Inner Mongolia 1.48 million tons and Hei Longjiang province 1.25 million tons.
As steel price surges, the reference price has been raised by CNY 60 per ton for coke with less than 12.5% of ash and 0.7% of sulfur, so now the price stays at CNY 1,710 per ton. Coke plants have been lifted out of red now, and are now producing actively.

China's Shougang Group has already started production at its new steel mill on the northern Chinese coast that is expected to produce 4.85 million tons a year, news portal Netease reported, citing Chairman Zhu Jimin.
Zhu made the comments at a ceremony marking Shougang's 90th anniversary, but he did not say when production began, the Netease said. Shougang Group, the parent of Shenzhen-listed Shougang Iron and Steel, is China's eighth largest steel maker.
Formal startup of the mill was delayed several times due to the sluggish steel market in China, although Shougang started to warm the mill's blast furnace in October and ran trials in May.
Steel prices in China were then boosted, thanks to the government's $585 billion stimulus plan, leading steel mills in the world's largest steel-making country producing at a high rate.
China's crude steel output is expected to reach an all-time high in August.
Shougang's new mill is located in Caofeidian, on the coast of northern Hebei province, which has a total designed capacity of 9.7 million tons and mainly produces flat steel products such as cold-rolled coil used in auto-making and home appliance sectors.
Shougang aims to reach the designed capacity by the end of 2010, the report quoted Zhu as saying. Zhu also said the firm plans to boost its total crude steel production to 30 million tons in 2012, via new projects and by acquiring rivals in other provinces.
Shougang Group has paid $73 million for a 90 percent stake in Shanxi-based Changzhi Iron & Steel, which has annual production capacity of 3 million tons of crude steel, and plans to build up the plant as its long products production base.

China's crude steel output rose 3.4 percent in August to a record monthly high of about 51.65 million tons, a source familiar with data from the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) said.
The data would confirm a fifth monthly increase in production by the world's biggest steel-making country despite a downturn in steel prices, which fell about 10 percent during the month.
China's government, which wants to squeeze steel production by concentrating it in the hands of a few big mills, is still counting on a huge slowdown in the rest of the year.
Li Yizhong, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said that the country is expected to produce 500 million tons of crude steel in 2009.
That would imply production of only about 130 million tons in the rest of 2009, or 32.5 million tons a month, a slowdown of almost 40 percent.
Li's forecast represents an acknowledgement that the ministry's earlier target of keeping production to 460 million tons this year is no longer realistic.
Li said current expansion projects would add 58 million tons of annual crude steel capacity, taking the total to 700 million tons. China already produces as much as the next nine biggest steelmaking countries and is mired in spare capacity.
But bullish steelmakers could trim their operations in September after a price cut by the country's flagship mill, Baosteel, announced a 6 percent cut in prices of hot rolled sheet.
The price cut could help stabilise the Chinese market for the steel product, said Michelle Applebaum of Steel Market Intelligence, which publishes an Advance/Decliner Index aimed at quantifying anecdotal price information.
"China is the single most volatile steel market around and the drop of our China index from 100 percent five weeks ago to zero last week proves that out big time," Applebaum wrote in a research note.
But the CISA figure implies daily production did not slow much at the end of the month, since the monthly average of 1.67 million tons was in line with the production rate in the first 10 days of August.
Huge demand from China's mounting steel output has triggered a boom in iron ore imports this year, weakening China's position in its annual term price negotiation with the big ore suppliers, Australia's Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Brazil's Vale.
CISA's figures are different from the official figures from the National Bureau of Statistics. If the NBS records a similar month-on-month rise when it publishes its data on Friday, it will put the month's steel production at 52.42 million tons.
Both sets of figures mark a jump of about a fifth since August 2008, when some steel production was halted to help clear the air for the Olympic Games in Beijing. (Writing by Alfred Cang; editing by Ken Wills).

China's Ministry of Commerce on Thursday said a U.S. decision to impose preliminary duties on imports of Chinese-made steel pipes broke global trade rules, as it lobbies against an impending decision on tire shipments.
The case is one of the biggest to move through the U.S. trade litigation system in recent years as President Barack Obama faces a September 17 deadline to decide whether to curb tire imports from China. That will indicate the administration's stance on applying "safeguard measures" that China agreed to when it joined the WTO.
The $2.6 billion steel pipe case, and others that are pending, could push Beijing to become increasingly active in the World Trade Organization, which it has found to be a useful tool in keeping markets open to the exports that drive its economy.
"China expresses strong dissatisfaction and is resolutely opposed to this," the ministry said.
"This does not comply with WTO agreements on subsidies. The U.S. used an incorrect method to define and calculate the subsidies, which has resulted in an artificially high subsidy rate, hurting Chinese firms' interests."
China has lobbied heavily in Washington against the tire tariffs, which, if imposed, would open the door to a slew of other complaints that Chinese products have harmed U.S. industry.
"China is the number one target of these duties and anti-dumping measures and the primary reason is that China is very competitive," said Edwin Vermulst, a trade lawyer with Vermulst Verhaeghe Graafsma & Bronkers, and adviser to the Chinese government on a different dispute.
"China will continue to resort to the WTO because if they don't, other countries will feel like they have carte blanche."
China has filed only five complaints to the WTO -- compared to 16 in which it was the respondent -- but three of the five have occurred in the past 11 months.

Anshan Iron and Steel Group Co Ltd has signed a long term iron ore shipping agreement with Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd one operator of the world's biggest fleet of bulk carriers for shipping iron ore and coal.
Earlier in April 2005, Angang singed three year Brazil iron ore transportation cooperation with Mitsui. And this is the first time for Angang to clinch a long term transportation agreement with foreign shipping company which lays a solid floor for steel mill to import ore from Brazil and Austria in the future.
Mitsui founded in 1884, one of the largest shipping companies in the world ranks No 1 with its largest scale of bulk freighter in global market