The price of Australian grade 1 hard coking coal remains stable, and market participants remain on the sidelines when evaluating the short-term outlook.
The price of Australian high quality low volatility (PLV) hard coking coal as assessed by Argus is $244 per ton FOB (FOB), while the price of grade 2 is $207 per ton FOB Australia.
Trading activity in major consumer regions is sluggish in the Australian offshore market, and many market participants remain wait-and-see.
A trading company's bid was shown for goods loaded in June, and the price was lower than $240 per ton FOB Australia. There was no deal when the market closed.” No one wants to sell June goods, or even July goods, for $240 per ton or even a fixed price. Everyone wants to buy at $250 per ton FOB,” said a Singapore-based trader.
Demand in India is expected to remain weak after the election and monsoon season.” “End users are still buying from traders, but the quantity is very small, around 20,000 tons,” one trader said. They are still more willing to buy at a fixed price, considering the index's price fluctuation may be quite drastic,” he added, pointing out that the price gap between the two deals that took place last week was huge.
On the Globalcal platform, the bid for a batch of 40,000 tons of high-quality medium volatile hard coking coal was $223 per ton during the January-October loading window, FOB Australia, which was $2 more per ton than on May 23. The bid did not attract any counteroffers.
The price of high-quality hard coking coal in India fell 15 cents/ton to $262.35 per ton cost plus freight (CFR), while the price of grade 2 also fell 15 cents/ton to $225.35 per ton CFR east coast of India.
Today, the price of PLV coking coal for China remains unchanged at $255 per ton on the CFR basis, and the price of the second grade remains unchanged at $223.50 per ton in CFR northern China.
In China's shipping market, trading activity is limited because buyers and sellers have large differences in price expectations.
There were bids for coking coal produced in Canada, which cost approximately $255-260 per ton plus freight (CFR), which market participants said was too high. Other details of this bid could not be confirmed when the market closed. A Chinese trader notes that due to the 3% import tax, buyers will find Canadian or American coal more expensive than Australian coal.
However, another Chinese source pointed out that the supply of high-quality domestic coking coal is still limited, which is driving up domestic coking coal prices. The bid price for Anze's low-sulphur coking coal increased by 50 yuan/ton (6.90 US dollars/ton) to 2,050 yuan per ton.
(The above content comes from the latest opinion of Argus, an independent international energy and commodity price assessment agency)