Seaborne premium hard coking coal prices in both the fob and cfr markets edged down on Friday February 26 with most market participants, especially trading houses, taking a wait-and-see attitude.
Fastmarkets indices
Premium hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $125.73 per tonne, down $1.27 per tonne
Premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $218.55 per tonne, down $0.49 per tonne
Hard coking coal, fob DBCT: $119.07 per tonne, down $11 per tonne
Hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang: $206.67 per tonne, down $0.01 per tonne
"Offers for Australia-origin premium hard coking coal were heard between $133 and $135 per tonne fob Australia on Friday February 26, with few bids from buyers," a trader source said.
"Offer prices for March-laycan cargoes of seaborne premium hard coking coal in the fob market are decreasing, and end-users are in no hurry to give bids because there was a deal concluded at $126 per tonne fob Australia yesterday," a trader source from Australia told Fastmarkets on February 26.
Indian coke producers and steel mills do not have an urgent demand for replenishment because most of them secured cargoes in late 2020 or early 2021, a coke producer from India said.
"Some of them have buying interest for April-laycan cargoes [of premium hard coking coal], where the price level is lower than March-laycan cargoes," he added.
"We're waiting to see if the offer price will decline further because the current seaborne supply is sufficient," an Indian trader said.
For the cfr market, supply and demand for non-Australian seaborne coking coal was weak in China. The high cost-efficiency and sufficient supply of domestic coking coal weakened the buying interest for seaborne cargoes.
"The equivalent RMB price for current seaborne cargoes is about 1,540 yuan (238.55) per tonne, which is more expensive than the price of similar quality domestic coking coal. Besides, there is much uncertainty if we have to wait months for cargoes from north America to arrive at plants in China," a coke producer from North China said.
Dalian Commodity Exchange
The most-traded May coking coal futures contract closed at 1,474 yuan ($228.33) per tonne on Friday, down by 53.50 yuan per tonne.
The most-traded May coke contract closed at 2,531.5 yuan per tonne, down by 93.50 yuan per tonne.