Ex-Australia premium hard coking coal (PHCC) prices have surged this week with at least one deal indicating a $25/mt increase. Market sources are not seeing this as a speculative rise, even though supply is still sufficient.
A contract for 40,000 mt of mid-volatile Goonyella PHCC from an Australian miner has been signed to a trader at $252.33/mt FOB for June laycan. The previous deal was at $227/mt FOB for similar material last week. Some sources believe that traders are getting ready to prepare for better demand from India in the coming weeks. Even though local flat steel prices in India have been relatively stable lately, rebar prices have gained $11-23/mt this week, while billets are up by around $20/mt. “China is much more positive in terms of steel, so coking coal returned to the $250/mt FOB level,” a trader said.
The tradable level for imported coking coal in China has failed to improve much so far and is still at $250-255/mt CFR, with ex-US material still in demand at these levels. However, in general the mood in China has also improved, and bids for coking coal may rise in the near future. “There have been some big changes in steel futures today and so sentiment is much better than the last one month. With more policy support, the Chinese stock market rose more than two percent... Raw materials are soaring again, with coke rebounding by RMB 100/mt at some mills,” a source noted.