Surging export prices have rapidly lifted coke exports, the paper reported, adding that export prices for first-grade metallurgic coke at Tianjin port had reached $730-740 a tonne, FOB.

The average export price for top-grade metallurgic coke, which traders said does not vary greatly in price from second-grade, had hit $675 per tonne by the end of June, up 50 percent from the beginning of the year.

Prices of top-grade metallurgic coke rose nearly 13 percent from late November, to about 1,700 yuan ($248.8) per tonne in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province, China's top producing area for coal and coke, industry officials said.

The tonnages of solid bulk (cereal, fertilizer, ore and concentrate, metallurgic coke, scrap metal etc.) increased by 18 %, while liquid bulk (petroleum products, chemical products etc.) dropped by 9 %.3 Close to 100,000 passengers and crew members are expected in Quebec City this year.