Stunned by soaring raw material costs, some Chinese steel mills have cut output and even started maintenance works earlier than usual as state-enforced mine closures continue to choke off the supply of key production ingredients, coke and coking coal. Prices of coke and coking coal, that typically account for 20 percent of steel production costs, have rallied more than two-fold this year amid Beijing’s big push to curb overcapacity and pollution, hurting profits for mills. Blast furnaces in the world’s top producer and consumer of steel are as a result operating at their lowest rate in about four months, data from industry consultancy Custeel.com shows, in contrast to earlier this year when robust demand and prices prompted mills to operate at nearly full capacity. Furnaces across China are running at 86 percent, […]