Spot prices for premium hard coking coal from Australia remain elevated driven by the ongoing service disruptions on the Goonyella rail system in the Australian state of Queensland.
About 13 million metric tons (MMT) of coking coal from Australia would be affected this year due to the disrupted supply, which makes up about 3% of global coking coal supply, according to the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ).
Australia, the second-largest producer of coking coal in the world, is also the largest exporter of the material — Australia’s metallurgical coal exports are expected to rise to 193 MMT in 2018-2019, up 4.2% from 2016-2017, according to American Metal Market (AMM).
Furthermore, S&P Global Platts has recently reported a strong rebound in coal exports from Australia’s metallurgical coal dominant region of North Queensland to 12.73 MMT in May’18, up 25% from 10.16 MMT a year earlier and up 24% from 10.28 MMT in Apr’18.
Notably, Queensland is one of the largest seaborne exporters of coal in the world and has a rich endowment of high-quality coal resources, with approximately 8.7 billion metric tons (BMT) of coking coal.
Queensland currently accounts for almost one-eighth of global metallurgical coal production and about 50% of international trade in this commodity. The Bowen Basin, in particular, is the most important source of export coal in Queensland.
On the pricing front, latest import offers for the Premium Low-Vol HCC grade are assessed at around USD 200/MT FOB Australia, higher by USD 3/MT from the previous week.
Similarly, offers for the 64 Mid-Vol HCC have gone up by USD 3.95/MT to around USD 181.10/MT FOB Australia.
On CFR India basis, these offers amount to USD 214.60/MT and USD 195.70/MT respectively.
Source: CoalMint Research
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