COKING COAL DAILY: Premium coking coal prices largely stable

Seaborne premium hard coking coal price in both the fob and cfr markets stabilized on Friday March 18 because most traders were unwilling to cut their offers to a large degree, sources said.

Fastmarkets indices
Premium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $113.96 per tonne, up $0.18 per tonne
Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $212.86 per tonne, unchanged
Hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $106.31 per tonne, up $0.72 per tonne
Hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $200.46 per tonne, up $2.07 per tonne

In the cfr market, trading activity for Russian low-volatility pulverized coal injection (PCI) and Canada-origin hard coking coal increased on Friday.

Overall market sentiment for premium hard coking coal and hard coking coal was pessimistic in China, especially after the sixth round of domestic coke price cuts of 100 yuan ($15) per tonne was proposed in north China on March 18.

The offer level for Russia low-vol PCI inched down and drew some buying interest from end-users in China. Offers for Canada-origin coking coal stayed relatively stable this week because traders were waiting for procurement demand from several south China steel mills.

“Mills in south China are used to importing North American coking coal in recent years and can accept a higher price than mills in north China,” one trader source said.

A Panamax vessel of Canada-origin hard coking coal, with a late April laycan, was heard traded at $203 per tonne cfr south China on March 18, down from $208 per tonne cfr south China in early March, market sources told Fastmarkets on March 19.

The fob market was quiet on Friday, with few offers and bids heard, market participants said.

An India-based coke processing plant said they received lower offers from sellers but there were still hesitant to procure on Friday.

One mill source from Vietnam told Fastmarkets that she would not procure currently due to the available stocks and bearish outlook for the market.

Some sources said the demand for Russia PCI from Indian end-users had seemed to increase recently.

“I heard Russia PCI is trading at $130 per tonne cfr India and that’s a decent price for the seller,” a Singapore-based trader said.

Dalian Commodity Exchange
The most-traded May coking coal futures contract closed at 1,598 yuan ($245.64) per tonne on Friday, up by 10.50 yuan per tonne.

The most-traded May coke contract closed at 2,353 yuan per tonne, up by 82 yuan per tonne.