Chinese holiday keeps seaborne coking coal market muted

The Asian seaborne hard coking coal spot market was quiet again on Monday April 7 as the largest buyer, China, was out of the market for the tomb-sweeping, or Qingming, festival.

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Steel First’s premium hard coking coal index for material sold on a cfr Jingtang basis was calculated at $122.35 per tonne on Monday, unchanged from Friday.

The premium hard coking coal index fob Australia’s DBCT port was $110.21 per tonne, up by $0.24 per tonne from Friday.

The cfr hard coking coal index stood at $111.24 per tonne on Monday, unchanged from Friday. The fob value was also unchanged at $99.38 per tonne.

Second-quarter price benchmark talks for non-hard coking coals were heard to have come to an end, with low-volatility pulverised coal injection (PCI) settled at $100 per tonne fob Australia and semi-soft coking coal settled at $90 per tonne, sources told Steel First.

The hard coking coal benchmark price was agreed between Anglo-American and Japanese steel mills for premium brands at $120 per tonne at the end of March.