Prices for premium hard coking coal on an fob Australia basis ended the week 2% higher, though trading activity in the seaborne market was muted on Friday October 19.
A cargo of premium mid-vol materials was offered around $218 per tonne fob Australia during the day, below the last transaction price for a shipment in the same segment, sources said. "While Chinese buyers have always paid a premium for seaborne cargoes of low-vol premium hard coking coal, China's import restrictions for coal have made such materials even more sought after," an end user source in the country said."It is not easy to replace the imported top-quality premium hard coking coal cargoes with...