BEIJING, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Chinese coking coal and coke futures jumped more than 4% on Tuesday, fuelled by concerns of tight supply amid Beijing’s toughening emissions standards, although demand for the steelmaking ingredients remained tepid as mills cut production.
“Under the energy consumption restriction and environmental policy, the supply and demand for coke contracted,” Huatai Futures analysts wrote in a note.
Coking coal imports from Mongolia are still sluggish while the shortage in thermal coal also indirectly affected coking coal blending supply, Huatai Futures added.
Prices for the metallurgical coal on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose as much as 4.4% to 2,972 yuan ($459.62) per tonne. The futures contract was up 3.5% at 3,946 yuan a tonne, as of 0207 GMT.
Thermal coal futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange surged 5.3% to 1,297 yuan per tonne amid supply crunch.
Dalian coke futures soared 4.5% to 3,348 yuan per tonne.
Tight coal supply, which led to power cuts across households to industrial sectors in China, fuelled steel prices. Widening power shortages have halted production at numerous factories including many supplying Apple and Tesla, while some shops in the northeast operated by candlelight and malls shut early as the economic toll of the squeeze mounted.
Construction steel rebar on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 1.4% to 5,579 yuan per tonne.
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