During the week ending March 13, import coking coal quotations in China have been relatively stable, with some slight decreases, but it is expected the market quotations will be supported in the near future by the disruptions of supply from Australia.
In the given period, quotations of premium hard coking coal from Australia have been at $171/mt CFR China, decreasing by $3/mt compared to last week. Hard coking coal prices are at $154.5/mt CFR on March 13, moving sideways week on week. China’s domestic coal mines have continued to resume operations and demand has been slack, putting pressure on demand for import coking coal.
However, on Wednesday, March 11, Australia’s three key ports in Queensland which ship about 118 million mt of coal per year - Hay Point, Abbot Point and Dalrymple Bay - were closed due to the cyclone and are expected to reopen only on Sunday at the earliest.
Coke prices in Tangshan are at RMB 1,750/mt ($250/mt) ex-warehouse, down by RMB 50/mt ($7.1/mt) week on week, according to SteelOrbis’ data. During the given week, steelmakers have been under pressure from high inventories and tight liquidity, which have exerted a negative impact on their purchasing activities for coke.
Coke futures prices at Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) are at RMB 1,879/mt ($268.4/mt) as of Friday, March 13, up by RMB 78/mt ($11.1/mt) or 4.3 percent compared to March 6.
$1 = RMB 7.0033