The Asian hard coking coal spot market continued to move
down on Wednesday January 22 as lower offers and a weak Chinese domestic market
weighed on sentiment.
Premium hard coking coal index for material sold on a cfr
Jingtang basis dropped by $2.05 to $140.40 per tonne on Wednesday.
Premium hard coking coal index prices fob Australia’s DBCT
port dropped by $0.03 to $129.94 per tonne.
The price for hard coking coal stood at $130.00 per tonne
cfr Jingtang, down by $0.11. Hard coking coal fob Australia edged up by $0.04
to $117.97 per tonne.
Shenhua Group has lowered the price of its coking coal
products by 10-40 yuan ($2-7) per tonne as well as its coke price by 50 yuan
($8) per tonne. Several coking plants in Hebei province have also lowered their
coke prices by 50 yuan ($8) per tonne.
Shanxi Coking Coal, on the other hand, is expected to cut
the price of its coking coal products by around 50 yuan ($8) per tonne after
the Chinese New Year, industry sources said.
A total of 4.89 million tonnes of coking coal was reported
to be sitting at Jingtang port earlier this week, down from 4.99 million tonnes
seen last Monday.
Stockpiles at Rizhao port stood at 2.15 million tonnes, also
down slightly from the 2.16 million tonnes recorded a week ago.
However, sources said that trade may pick up if stockpiles
at Jingtang fall to about 3.5 million tonnes.
The most-traded May coking coal contract on the Dalian
Commodity Exchange closed at 931 yuan ($153) per tonne, up from Tuesday’s close
of 927 yuan ($152) per tonne.
The most-traded May coke contract on the exchange closed
lower by 2 yuan ($0.33) per tonne at 1,340 yuan ($220) per tonne.
US and Australian producers continue to offer competitive
prices for high- and low-volatility coals respective to European steel mills.
High-volatility US coals were heard offered into Europe by
East Coast producers at $117-124 per tonne fob.