China is a mystery and met coal prices deepen the intrigue

<p>Everyone agrees that China is struggling, though there a major disagreements on how bad it is or how bad it will get. Today, the PBOC cut the reserve requirement ratio for banks in yet-another move to shore up the economy. The real estate sector is struggling particularly badly.</p><p>But have a look of this chart, it's Dalian metallurgical coal and it's absolutely surging.</p><p>Other data shows that Chinese blast furnace capacity utilization rate among Chinese steelmakers rose 0.49% last week to reach 92.76% — the highest since late Oct 2020. </p><p>Where is this steel going? It couldn't possibly be domestic demand, or is it somehow for autos?</p><p>This has to be some kind of export loophole, right? But India, the EU and US are all cracking down on Chinese steel.</p><p>If anyone has any idea, I'd love to hear it.</p>

This article was written by Adam Button at www.forexlive.com.