Australian coking coal FOB prices slip amid subdued year-end liquidity

Australian premium low-volatile hard coking coal FoB price inched slightly lower this week.

Trading activities have slowed down toward the end of the year following the conclusion of a series of transactions in the past few weeks.

However, a couple of fresh bookings for premium coking coal were done earlier this week, supporting prices on an FOB basis.

A Panamax vessel of 80,000 t of premium low-volatility hard coking coal with January laycan was traded at $100.50/t FOB Australia on Monday December 14.

Another trade was concluded late on Friday December 11 for 85,000 t of an Australian premium mid-vol at $102-103/t FOB Australia FOB Australia with a late January laycan.

Nevertheless, the FOB premium hard coking coal prices are still relatively weak because China s not importing coal from Australia following the indefinite ban since mid-October.

In addition, Australian semisoft coking coal prices have limited upside potential in the near term as premium hard coking coal prices continue to hover at a multiyear low level of around $100/t FOB Australia. Weaker grades of coking coals have lost their price competitiveness against premium hard coking coal as a result of that.

India Coking Coal Import Shipment Vessel Lineup

CoalMint's latest vessel lineup data 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 $100.00/t and $92.50/t FOB Hay Point, Australia.

For Indian buyers, these prices amount to $113.50/t and $106.00/t respectively on CNF India basis.

Australia-India dry bulk freight rate is currently assessed at $13.50/t for delivery by Panamax vessel class.