The Australian premium hard coking coal market has been following a downward trend, and, though it has been slower than in some other raw materials segments like iron ore, falling offers almost every day and the price collapse in China will continue to put pressure on coking coal prices.
The latest offers for premium hard coking coal have been reported at $247-250/mt FOB over the past two days. Yesterday, April 24, a 75,000 mt cargo of mid-volatile premium hard coking coal was offered at $250/mt FOB for May 20-29 laycan. And today, the same quality has been available at $247/mt FOB. This is down from the previous offer at $254/mt FOB.
The weak sentiment in China has become one of the major factors behind the current downtrend, together with ample supply. An offer for ex-Australia premium hard coking coal to China was at $260/mt CFR, translating to $247-248/mt FOB. Most bids have been at $245/mt FOB at the highest.
The SteelOrbis daily reference price for ex-Australia PHCC has been lowered to $248.5/mt FOB, down by $5.5/mt.
During the weekend, Chinese mills announced their intention to cut coke purchase prices by another RMB 100/mt this week due to poor demand.
Also, ex-Russia coking coal quotations have continued to follow a downtrend. Ex-Russia Inagli coking coal has been offered at $200/mt CFR China, down by $15/mt over the past two weeks. And some sales for this brand have been at $198-200/mt CFR to China, while offers for Deni Deep have been assessed at $210-212/mt CFR, versus $225/mt CFR two weeks ago.