Australian Coking Coal: Prices plunge down amid deteriorating sentiment in China
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Australian coking coal prices have weakened further over the past week, amid deteriorating market sentiment on low restocking needs in China.
In China, thin buying interest for seaborne coking coal was been observed, as steelmakers appear to be having sufficient inventories till January next year. Simultaneously, Chinese domestic coking coal prices have also fallen off recently.
Nevertheless, Chinese end-users expressed interest for seaborne coking coal cargoes with delivery dates of mid-late December laycan, possibly to utilize their fresh import quotas for the new year.
Market participants expect near-term FOB price levels to stay relatively steady, following the major correction.
Meanwhile, Indian demand for spot shipments of seaborne coking coal has been dampened by the prevailing bearishness in the domestic steel sector, which has been plagued by softer prices and higher input costs on the back of muted demand growth, owing to slowdowns in automobile, manufacturing and property construction.
PRICE ASSESSMENTS
Latest offers for the Premium HCC grade are assessed at around USD 133.50/MT FOB Australia, lower by USD 11.50/MT than the last traded rate of USD 145.00/MT prevailing during the week gone by (as on 30th Oct'19).
Offers for the 64 Mid Vol HCC grade are assessed at around USD 121.00/MT FOB Australia.
For Indian buyers, the above offers amount to USD 147.15/MT and USD 134.65/MT respectively on CNF India basis.
Pulverized Coal Injection (PCI) & Semi Soft Coking Coal
| FOB Australia | CNF China | CNF India | |
| Low Vol PCI | 88.25 | 100.75 | 101.90 |
| Mid Tier PCI | 84.25 | 96.75 | 97.90 |
| Semi Soft | 79.00 | 91.50 | 92.65 |
N.B.: All prices are in USD/MT
