Coking Coal on a diving course, pricing down to $185/ton

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09 January 2017

Coking coal prices have nosedived in the first week of 2017 with CFR India levels of HCC mid vol coal dashing down to $185 per tonne CFR India. Premium coal arriving from Australia was down to $206 per tonne CFR China. FOB Australia was also down to $205 per tonne FOB, almost $3 per tonne down from the beginning of 2017.

Buying from China due to production restrictions has seen many traders and buyers going on hold.

Indian buyers are also inactive due to slow growth demand of steel within the country.

Traders anticipate that the prices may drop by another $10-12 per tonne till February as some few offers are already being heard at $180-182 per ton for late January and $176-178 per tonne for early February from Australia.

On the contrary, miners and coal suppliers from Australia are expecting the prices to drop marginally by $3-5 per tonne till mid February as Indian buying will be active in next few weeks and rains in Australia may disrupt the movement of coal from major ports in Australia.

In the first week of 2017, steel prices in China have remained nearly unchanged for major products like HRC and rebar at $490 and $418 per tonne respectively. Turkish scrap prices fluttered $1-2 per tonne though remaining unchanged towards weekend.