Australian coking coal export prices rose to their highest in nearly two years on June 9, having trended upward since May.
Fastmarkets' index for
premium hard coking coal, fob DBCT hit $168.50 per tonne that day.
Market sources have attributed the gains to increased speculation and a wide spread between cfr China and fob Australia markets.
Speculative cargoes swap boosts market sentiment
More speculative trading activity for Australian coking coal emerged from mid-May after the spread between import prices for Unites States-origin coking coal in China and export prices for Australian coking coal widened, market sources told Fastmarkets.
Some traders and end users had been procuring more Australian coking coal on an fob Australia basis and reselling their term contract cargoes of North American coking coal to China.
"Assuming a freight of about $50 per tonne from the US to China, the cfr China price [for Australian cargoes] is about $230 per tonne today and $160-$170 per tonne in early May, much lower than transaction prices in China," an India-based...