The upward movement of global coking coal prices, which started towards the end of last week amid the tightness of coal supply and also due to the force majeure declared for coal shipments by BHP Billiton, both after Cyclone Debbie, has continued today, April 6. Although prices on FOB basis have moved up sharply, coking coal quotations on CFR China basis have failed to do likewise since the world's biggest coal importer China has rejected the new price levels.
While Australian hard coking coal offers to the export markets have increased by $11/mt compared to yesterday to US$183/mt FOB, Australian premium hard coking coal export offers have moved up by $47/mt over the same period to US$236/mt FOB.
Meanwhile, import hard coking coal and premium hard coking coal prices for China are at $168/mt CFR and $175/mt CFR, respectively.