Market participants' reaction to the possibility of a shortage of coking coal due to Australian rail freight operator Aurizon's new maintenance plan kept seaborne prices supported on Friday June 1.
A cargo of premium mid-vol hard coking coal has been traded around $190 per tonne fob Australia while two cargoes of hard coking coal have changed hands at $169 per tonne fob Australia. Two more cargoes of second-tier hard coking coal were also traded at $187-188.50 per tonne cfr China during the day, market sources told Metal Bulletin. "We rely more on the Blackwater [rail] line [in Queensland, Australia] which has since...