Seaborne coking coal prices steady

The seaborne hard coking coal market was quiet again on Tuesday December 3 as buying interest remained low.

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Steel First’s premium hard coking coal index for material sold cfr Jingtang stood at $150.95 per tonne on December 3, up by $0.49 from the level seen on Monday.

Premium hard coking coal prices fob DBCT Australia were calculated at $139.88 per tonne, down by $0.67 per tonne from Monday.

The price for hard coking coal cfr Jingtang stood at $140.19 per tonne on Tuesday, up by $0.30 per tonne from Monday.

Hard coking coal fob DBCT was $126.33 per tonne, up by $0.08 per tonne on the day.

“I’m not looking to buy any December- or January-loading cargoes as my customers are not interested,” a Singapore-based trading source told Steel First.

“Traditionally, there’s reduced liquidity in the market leading up to the quarterly negotiations,” a source at an Australian producer said.

Market participants would consider a rollover of the current quarterly benchmark to the March quarter as a “victory” for miners.

BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp’s agreed fourth-quarter benchmark is $152 per tonne fob Australia.

The most-traded May hard coking coal futures contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange closed at 1,111 yuan ($181) per tonne on Tuesday, down from Monday’s close of 1,118 yuan ($182) per tonne.

The most-traded May coke contract closed at 1,625 yuan ($265) per tonne on the same exchange, down from the previous day’s closing price of 1,629 yuan ($266) per tonne.