According to Qinhuangdao Seaborne Coal Exchange, last week coal inventories at ports in the Bohai Bay Economic Rim area of eastern China started to drop after rising continuously over the previous four weeks. It is expected that the coal inventory levels will continue to decrease as coal is shipped out of the local ports. Market analysts predict that import coal prices at ports in the Bohai Bay Rim area will probably stay unchanged during the remainder of August and will rebound in September.
On August 15, the coal inventory at Qinhuangdao port stood at 7.32 million mt, while coal inventories amounted to 2.35 million mt, 3.74 million mt and 1.72 million mt at Caofeidian port, Jingtang port and Guotou Jingtang port respectively. As compared with the data for the previous week, the total coal inventory at these ports in the Bohai Bay Economic Rim decreased by more than 300,000 mt last week.
Last week, coal arrivals via railway at Qinhuangdao port amounted to 4.45 million mt, down 60,000 mt from the prior week.