Friday, April 1,
With growing coal prices, Indian steel companies have come under the strain of passing on the increased cost to end-users.* According to a Hong Kong based thermal coal analyst, thermal coal’s contract price is likely to remain above $100/MT over the next one year.
“Domestic prices of coal in India is still 20-25% lower than the international prices, But then, even a small increase will affect the bottom lines of cement, power and steel companies, which use coal in a big way.” said, Peter Hickson, global basic materials strategist.
Demand for coal in India has grown at 9% on a y-o-y basis from the past five years. Therefore, India, along with China, will play an important role in driving up global coal prices.
Market players anticipating that long-term impact of Japan disaster is bullish for coal once the reconstruction and reinvestment starts in Japan. Japan needs an additional one million metric tonnes of coal to keep its plants burning.
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