Prices for ex-Australia coking coal have fallen further and a deal for 40,000 mt of Illawarra mid-volatile premium hard coking coal (PHCC) has been confirmed at $270.9/mt CFR despite expectations of $280/mt FOB heard earlier. This deal signals a fall of about $34.1/mt in prices over the past week.
Indian buyers have been pushing the market further to $250/mt FOB, though a number of sources agree that prices have been falling too rapidly lately and that they need to stabilize for some time. Also, the tradable level for PHCC in China has lost $10/mt from the previous day to $280/mt CFR.
“Demand is only at low prices. I think we are still not at the bottom, though the current prices are more reasonable than the previous $300/mt,” a source said. Coking coal futures at Dalian Commodity Exchange have declined by 1.92 percent today.