Plentiful availability of cargoes of ex-Australia premium hard coking coal (PHCC), especially for August shipment, have put pressure on prices again. As a result, offers have dropped by over $10/mt this week and deals have been rare.
Offers for premium mid-volatile materials from Australia slipped first to $225/mt FOB, and then to $222/mt FOB, and have been at around $218-220/mt FOB by the end of this week, falling from the reference price of $230/mt FOB late last week. A deal for 35,000 mt of ex-Australia Moranbah North is heard to have been done to India at $234.9/mt CFR for August shipment. This price translates to $215-217/mt FOB and is assessed as being on the lower side, but, due to the close shipment date and a lot of cargoes being available in the market, it has been in line with market expectations. An offer for 72,000 mt of ex-Australia low-volatile Peak Downs material was at $227/mt FOB early this week but did not result in a deal as bids fell to $220/mt FOB. Despite the accident at Anglo American there have been no disruptions of supply for shipments in August and the first half of September, so the market has been fully dependent on demand.
The Australian PHCC reference price has settled at $217.5/mt FOB, down by $7.5/mt from July 25 and down $12.5/mt over the past week.
In China, the tradable level for PHCC has slipped to $235/mt CFR, down from the previous deal for North American premium PCC at $242/mt CFR a week ago. A deal for Russian PCI has been done at $148/mt CFR this week.
