COKING COAL DAILY: Premium fob price rises in latest trade amid tight supply, high cfr prices

The premium hard coking coal fob price rose on Friday September 17 due to tight supply in the Australian spot market, sources said.

Fastmarkets indices
Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $565.77 per tonne, up $5.01 per tonne

Hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $491.97 per tonne, up $5.04 per tonne

Premium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $379.34 per tonne, up $20.01 per tonne

Hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $308.10 per tonne, up $5.74 per tonne

Fastmarkets Weekly PCI indices

PCI low-vol, cfr Jingtang: $273.15 per tonne, up by $7.64 per tonne

PCI low-vol, fob DBCT
: $242.80 per tonne, up by $30.35 per tonne

A 75,000-tonne cargo of premium low-volatility hard coking coal, with November 11-20 laycan, was traded at $380 per tonne fob Australia on September 17 on the Globalcoal platform, Fastmarkets learned.

Before the deal was heard, a November-laycan premium low-volatility hard coking coal was offered at $380 per tonne fob Australia and the bid for similar quality product with November laycan was $365 per tonne fob Australia.

Sources expected Australian miners’ volumes of premium hard coking coal available in the spot market during the fourth quarter of 2021 to be tight, a mill source in Vietnam said. The source added that high-level premium hard coking coal cfr China prices also pushed the price up in the fob market.

A trading source in India held a similar view. “Tight supply and high [premium hard coking coal] cfr China price led to the price jump [in the fob market],” he said.

A trading source in Singapore said the price increase was due to strong demand for premium hard coking coal.

Low-volatility PCI price in the fob market also rose with the uptrend hard coking coal.

In the cfr market, most market participants took a wait-and-see attitude, with offer prices for US-origin coking coal at a high level. A coke producer source in Tangshan city said that only mills in south China are able to accept the current price level for US-origin premium hard coking coal.

A 20,000-tonne cargo of Russian low-volatility pulverized coal injection (PCI), with September-laycan was traded at $265 per tonne cfr China early in the reported week, two trading sources in China said.

It is likely that mills will need to cut their production further in the fourth quarter due to the crude steel production curbs. Moreover, China plans to put more cities in the northern region under air pollution controls during the upcoming winter

As a result, some trading sources doubt if the high-level premium hard coking coal cfr price is sustainable.

Dalian Commodity Exchange
The most-traded January coking coal futures contract closed at 2,693 yuan ($417.63) per tonne on Friday, up by 9.50 yuan per tonne.

The most-traded January coke contract closed at 3,218 yuan per tonne, up by 29 yuan per tonne.

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