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Steel First’s premium hard coking coal index for material sold cfr Jingtang stood at $149.94 per tonne on December 5, up by $0.08 from Wednesday.
Premium hard coking coal prices fob DBCT Australia were calculated at $139.12 per tonne, down by $0.76 per tonne from Wednesday.
The price for hard coking coal cfr Jingtang stood at $139.02 per tonne on Thursday, down by $0.04 per tonne from Wednesday.
Hard coking coal fob DBCT was $124.29 per tonne, down by $0.79 per tonne on the day.
“The market is still pretty quiet, but it seems to have stabilised,” a trading source in Beijing told Steel First. “I have a few more enquiries from customers although their price expectations remain low.”
A Tianjin-based trader said some mills and coking plants are looking to buy at the ports, but they are still deliberating what the right price is for them in relation to their needs.
Strong coke and thermal coal prices in China have also given some support to the market, sources said.
Separately, the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance is understood to have started its monthly price negotiations for January with Japanese steel mills, according to multiple sources.
Peak Downs and Saraji were heard offered at $143 per tonne fob Australia, while Goonyella and Gregory were offered at $140 per tonne fob and $124 per tonne fob, respectively.
The most-traded May 2014 hard coking coal futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange closed at 1,125 yuan ($184) per tonne on Thursday, up from Wednesday’s close of 1,124 yuan ($183) per tonne.
The most-traded May 2014 coke contract closed at 1,622 yuan ($265) per tonne on the same exchange, down from the previous day’s closing price of 1,637 yuan ($267) per tonne.