Monday, 27 June,
It was reported that coal prices remained stable as the market absorbed the recent fall in oil prices and concerns grew over the impact of heavy rains on Australian coal exports.
Utilities and traders said Australian spot coal supply has tightened during the past two weeks due to rain and the absorption of off-specification cargoes by India and China.
One European trader said “You can’t rule out the effect of fresh supply-side disruptions on prices given what happened to coal during the past several months and it is raining hard in Australia but it’s too early to say whether that’s going to hit exports and push up prices.”
One supplier said, “There’s not a lot of standard-grade coal available right now out of Australia what needed to be sold quickly because Japan didn’t want it has now gone.”
Australian producers are again engaged in price negotiations with Japanese utilities to agree prices for term contract supply and as often happen while talks are ongoing; prices have crept slightly higher on global coal.
Despite port congestion, delays to discharging cargoes and a lack of clarity over what measures China will take to tackle the power shortages, another trader said, “There is some limited interest from China for whatever is cheap and at USD 115.00 a ton. Coal is cheaper than it has been for a while.”
Leave a Reply