Australian coking coal suppliers lower offer levels to garner buying interest

Australian coking coal prices have dipped slightly this week, despite continued demand from non-Chinese steelmakers for competitively priced premium hard coking coals.

Earlier this week, however, a fresh flurry of bookings was done in the premium coking coal segment, driving prices slightly higher on an FOB basis.

A trade was done at $103.33/t FOB Australia, for an 80,000t cargo of Australian premium mid-volatile coal with a late-December laycan. Another trade was done at $102/t FOB Australia, for an 80,000t cargo of Australian premium low-volatile coal with a late-January laycan.

Excess spot tonnages keep prices pressurized for Asian markets outside China

Trading activities in the ex-China FoB market have slowed down during the latter part of this week after a series of transactions were concluded in the past two weeks. A further slowdown is expected toward the end of the year and the seaborne market is not expected to see significant spot purchases until at least January.

Meanwhile, the Chinese market continued witnessing scarcity of non-Australian coking coal cargoes and there was continued interest to resell Australian cargoes.

In China, spot prices continued rallying as near term price expectations strengthened amid strong domestic coking coal prices and demand for non-Australian premium hard coking coal. Limited spot availability of Canadian and US coals in the premium hard coking coal segment also supported prices in China.

However, most buyers in China remained on the sidelines as limited options were available in the seaborne market and uncertainties loom over import policies.

India Coal Import Shipment Vessel Lineup

CoalMint’s latest vessel lineup data (as on 9^th Dec’20) reveals that a total quantity of 2,540,232t of Australian coking coal is expected to reach various Indian ports by 25th Dec’20.

824,850t Dhamra (Odisha)

88,000t Ennore (Tamil Nadu)

80,950t Gangavaram (Visakhapatnam)

176,400t Haldia (West Bengal)

75,940t Jaigarh (Maharashtra)

305,593t Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh)

154,000t Mormugao (Goa)

286,263t Paradip (Odisha)

45,000t Vizag (Andhra Pradesh)

Price Assessments

Latest prices for the Premium HCC and the 64 Mid Vol HCC grades are assessed at around $101.00/t and $93.50/t FOB Hay Point, Australia.

For Indian buyers, these prices amount to $114.65/t and $107.15/t respectively on CNF India basis.

Australia-India dry bulk freight rate is currently assessed at $13.65/t for delivery by Panamax vessel class.

~

By Aditya Sinha