Coking Coal prices have continued to undergo upward movements, being driven by robust demand from Chinese buyers.
Recently, the occurrence of a mine collapse incident at the Shanxi region of China has triggered further impetus to the imports of Coking Coal among Chinese steel makers, resulting in further up-swings in the prices of the coal. Demand for imported Coking Coal was already strong in China as the steel makers there imported heavily not only for catering to their daily needs but also for stocking the material for future use.
The 1.2 MnT capacity Coking Coal mine at Shanxi in China was hit by heavy flood, due to heavy downpour of rain.
The latest offer for the Premium HCC is reported to rise by around USD 2.5/MT over the week-ago offer to around USD 181/MT FoB Australia. Exhibiting a similar trend, the recent offer for the 64 Mid Vol HCC is also reported to go up by around USD 5.2/MT from that in the week last to around USD 160.65/MT FoB Australia.
Source: CoalMint Research
For Indian buyers, these offers translate into: USD 191.70/MT and USD 171.35/MT respectively on CFR India basis.
In the meantime, the Appin coal mine, owned by South32 of Australia, continues to be in the suspended state, due to high gas concentrations inside the mine.
In India, demand for Coking Coal is strong as steel production is going on at high rates. Moreover, some buyers were learnt to be in talks with the Canadian coal miner—Teck Resources—for purchasing Coking Coal. Most buyers in India are also on the look-out for diversifying the Coking Coal import regions as the occasional supply disruptions in Australia impart volatility in the coal prices.
IMPORTS
Coking Coal imports are uninterrupted in India as steel plants are running at high rates. An analysis of the import data for the ongoing month reveals that Indian buyers have mostly preferred the Australian Coking Coal.
During July’17, around 4.5 MnT of Coking Coal was imported in India, data collected by CoalMint Research shows.
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