COKING COAL DAILY: Seaborne hard coking coal indices tick up amid cautious optimism

Seaborne hard coking coal indices in both fob and cfr markets rose slightly on Friday September 18 following the latest transaction, while most market participants remain in wait-and-see mode.

Fastmarkets indices
Premium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $122.95 per tonne, up $1.22 per tonne
Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $134.41 per tonne, down $0.73 per tonne
Hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $107.49 per tonne, up $3.46 per tonne
Hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $113.21 per tonne, up $2.75 per tonne

An 80,000-tonne cargo of hard coking coal, with October laycan, was traded at $107.50 per tonne fob Australia on either Thursday or Friday. A trader from China procured the cargo, sources told Fastmarkets today.

“The hard coking coal price rose following the uptrend in the premium hard coking coal price. It’s possible that the volumes came from long-term contracts which can’t be fulfilled by certain end users from China due to lack of [coking coal] import quotas,” a buyer source said.

A trader source in Singapore increased his estimates for both premium low-volatility hard coking coal and premium mid-volatility hard coking coal by $1 per tonne fob Australia compared with previous day. “The bids for premium mid-vol hard coking coal with October or November laycan on GlobalCoal platform are above $130 per tonne fob Australia now, which indicates bullish sentiment,” he said.

Meanwhile, the source also raised his estimates for hard coking coal and pulverized coal injection (PCI) because “everything is up now in the spot market.”

While some market participants from China were uncertain if the demand from Chinese steel mills would continue, most market participants have aligned their expectations to actual transaction prices, admitting seaborne prices had rebounded.

Dalian Commodity Exchange
The most-traded January coking coal futures contract closed at 1,277 yuan ($188.66) per tonne on Friday, up by 17 yuan per tonne.

The most-traded January coke contract closed at 1,988.50 yuan per tonne, up by 40.50 yuan per tonne.