Seaborne coking coal buyers wait for clear price direction

The seaborne hard coking coal market remained largely stable on Wednesday December 11. Supplies have been abundant, but buyers continued to wait on the sidelines.

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Steel First’s premium hard coking coal index for material sold cfr Jingtang stood at $148.28 per tonne on December 9, down $0.07 from Tuesday.

Premium hard coking coal prices fob DBCT Australia were calculated at $136.17 per tonne, down $1.68 from Tuesday.

The price for hard coking coal cfr Jingtang stood at $137.71 per tonne on Wednesday, up $0.13 per tonne from Tuesday’s levels.

Hard coking coal fob DBCT was $124.29 per tonne, unchanged on the day

“It’s been pretty steady – not going down, but not going up either,” a trading source in Beijing told Steel First.

He added that he would wait for a while longer before selling his cargoes.

“There’s no clear direction in the market at the moment,” a second Beijing-based trader said. “So we’ve been cautious with bookings.”

Speaking to Steel First, market participants generally pegged top Australian brands at or below $150 per tonne cfr China.

On the fob Australia front, sources said trades were scarce, but pegged premium materials at about $136-138 per tonne.

The most-traded May hard coking coal futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange closed at 1,105 yuan ($181) per tonne on Wednesday, down from Tuesday’s close of 1,113 yuan ($182) per tonne.

The most-traded May coke contract on the exchange closed at 1,613 yuan ($264) per tonne, also down from the previous close of 1,618 yuan ($265) per tonne.