Indian state-owned mills Steel Authority of India Ltd.
(SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL) Saturday concluded negotiations
for first quarter coking coal supplies from Australia and the US, sources close
to the matter said Monday.
Only BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) managed to
clinch Australian coking coal contracts with the Indian mills. Anglo American
and Peabody, who also sell Australian coking coal, have not yet concluded
deals, sources said.
SAIL was said to have procured 14 Panamaxes, or around 1
million MT, of hard coking coal from BMA for January-March, half of which was
determined by the ‘benchmark’ quarterly price set in Japan in early December. The
price for the quarterly portion of premium mid-vol hard coking coals Goonyella
and Illawarra was set at $162/MT FOB Australia, while the other half is to be
determined by BMA’s monthly pricing mechanism.
Goonyella and Illawarra coals take up approximately half the
Q1 procurement, while the other half is Barwon coking coal, a blended product
from the miner comprising premium and semi-hard HCCs. Barwon was said to be
have sold at $150/MT FOB Australia on a quarterly contract basis.
Meanwhile, RINL had finalized the procurement of Peak Downs,
Saraji and Gregory coking coals from BMA using a mixture of monthly and
quarterly pricing, a source familiar with the matter said. The quarterly price
for Peak Downs and Saraji was in line with the Japanese benchmark price at
$165/MT FOB.
Both mills also clinched Q1 deals with US miners Alpha
Resources and Logan and Kanawha. SAIL and RINL were said to have bought five
Panamaxes of US mid-vol HCCs from the two miners for Q1 at $130/MT FOB US East
Coast, down $2/MT from Q4 2012. This equates to around $160.50/MT CFR India.
Sourced
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