Ex-Australia premium hard coking coal (PHCC) prices have fallen in recent deals as demand from India has eased, while supply has been slightly higher, pushing prices down by $21/mt yesterday.
A deal for 40,000 mt of low-volatile Oaky North PHCC was sold at $330/mt FOB for the East Asia market. In addition, the same volume of mid-volatile Goonyella C/Riverside PHCC changed hands at $318/mt FOB for the Indian market. Both are for December laycan. As a result, the SteelOrbis reference price has been lowered by $21/mt to $325/mt FOB.
Offers for both low-volatile and mid-volatile PHCC are still at $350-355/mt FOB, but bids have not been above $320-330/mt FOB and market sources believe that the next deals would be at $320/mt FOB at the highest. “Now, there is interest in Chinese and Indonesian coke at $330-34/mt FOB,” a trader said.
At the same time, ex-Russia coking coal prices have rebounded to some extent, given the better demand from China and the increase in steel prices. For instance, last week a deal for K10 premium hard coking coal from Russia was closed at $225/mt CFR China, up from the previous contracts reported at $222/mt CFR in the middle of October and at $210/mt CFR in late October.
Moreover, the tradable level for K4 material is assessed at $195/mt CFR, $5/mt higher compared to three weeks ago.