Australia: Thermal coal exports up 13% in July as summer demand peaks

Surging power demand in the North East Asian countries due to the more-than-usual hot weather has pushed up Australian coal exports higher by 13% m-o-m in Jul’21 to 18.5 mn t. The highest shipments were recorded to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Since the past few months Indian buyers have retreated from booking Australian coal given elevated prices. Prices of 5500 NAR Australian thermal coal moved up by 63% since May’21 and are currently at $93/t FoB.