Coking Coal prices have continued escalating under the influence of strong demand. Recently, heavy rains in Russia have caused supply issues, which added fuel to the price rise.
Global offers for the Premium HCC have gone up by around USD 11.5/MT to around USD 192.5/MT FoB Australia. In a similar rising trend, offers for the 64 Mid Vol HCC have gone up by around USD 9.75/MT to around USD 170.40/MT FoB Australia.
Source: CoalMint Research
For Indian buyers, these offers amount to: USD 203.75/MT and USD 181.65/MT respectively on CFR India basis.
Coking Coal prices have come under the twin influence of stronger demand and supply issues that imparted upward momentum to the prices.
Demand is fueled by the strong imports by the steel makers in China. They have imported the coal in bulk to run their plants, which ran at high rates. Steel production has substantially gone up in China, resulting in consumption of the coal also to rise. Moreover, Coking Coal prices in China have gone higher due to the strong demand, prompting the Chinese steel producers to procure the coal from foreign markets.
In Australia, there were some supply issues, which contributed towards the abrupt price rise of the coal.
The ongoing labor strike at the Oaky Creek Coking Coal Mine, owned by Glencore, has hampered Coking Coal supplies.
The Appin Coking Coal Mine at Illawarra, owned by South32, is under suspension of operation, due to high gas concentration inside the mine. According to speculations, there is no possibility of the mine resuming operations during this month.
Also, heavy rains in Russia have reduced Coking Coal output there.
Communications with some market players in India by CoalMint elicited that they speculate the export prices to cross the USD 200/MT mark.
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