Posted on 20 Mar 2023
Australian fob coking coal prices fell further last week as supply outweighed demand.
Kallanish assessed premium hard coking coal at $336.13/tonne fob Australia, falling $28.91/t from $365.04/t the previous week.
On the Singapore Exchange, Premium Coking Coal Futures for April settled at $320/t on Friday, declining $27.50/t from $347.50/t fob a week earlier.
According to a trader, an Indian end-user bought 25,000 tonnes of Goonyella / Goonyella C / Riverside / Caval Ridge for 11-30 April loading laycan at $340/t fob on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, global miner BHP sold 25,000t of Goonyella / Goonyella C / Riverside for 11-20 April laycan at $352/$350/$350/t fob on Wednesday. BHP also sold another 25,000t of Goonyella / Goonyella C / Riverside for 11-20 April laycan at $352/$350/$350 fob on the same date. Both are non-independent trades and likely balance on index-basis.
The trader also reveals that BHP sold 40,000t of Goonyella / Goonyella C / Riverside / Caval Ridge for 1-10 April laycan at $345/$344/$344/$344 fob on Friday. The deal is a non-independent trade and likely balance on index-basis.
"Basically, spot availabilities improved from April and end-users are awaiting further price correction as supply improved," says a trader.
According to another trader, traders are using the small volume of the physical market to move sentiment and take profit from the paper market. "Overall, they are making signals in the market as BHP has seen the increase in trading volume," he says.
An analyst also comments that the index fell as coking coal cargo availability outweighs demand. "It seems prices have come off and spot cargo availability is triumphing over demand," he says.
"Now that La Niña has passed and the climate is turning towards El Niño, we should see higher Australian supply and with weak macro, and these should add pressure on Australia fob prices," he adds.
Source:Kallanish
