A global reshuffling of metallurgical coal trade flows and a limited supply of the steelmaking raw material have caused seaborne prices to spike in recent weeks.
Global reshuffle
In the seaborne market, coking coal cargoes from the United States and Canada flowed to China after the East Asian country imposed a ban on the import of Australian coal in October 2020.
Chinese steelmakers who could no longer import coking coal from Australia had to turn to North America to secure for cargoes.
This has resulted in import prices for coking coal rising in the past three months in China.
Fastmarkets' index for
premium hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang was at $217.73 per tonne on Tuesday February 2, up by 81.7% from $119.83 per tonne on October 28 last year.
Fastmarkets' index for
hard coking coal, cfr Jingtang experienced a similar trend. The index was at $203 per tonne on Tuesday, nearly double compared with late October last year when it was at $104.01 per tonne.
Elsewhere, steelmakers in markets such as Europe,...