Coal news and updates

China's coastal thermal coal prices might increase in coming weeks, Deutsche Bank predicted, citing reasons such as the Bohai-Rim price index, which is based on the 5,500kcal coal, is catching up and hence pushing up overall coal prices; and coal traders are resuming their businesses at a time when individual power producers are restocking, creating a perception of a thermal coal shortage. 

Investment in new coal-to-chemical production is booming in China, particularly for coal-to-olefins (CTO) and methanol-to-olefins (MTO), according to UBS. The Swiss bank estimated CTO and MTO capital expenditure in China would total $56 billion in 2012-2020, or 16 million tons of additional olefin capacity per year. 

China's utility thermal coal inventories are near the lowest level since August 2011, signaling some imminent pre-winter restocking activity, according to Deutsche Bank. As of October 18 2013, stocks were still falling, and the pickup in inventory had been driven entirely by lower consumption in October as compared with August, when the hot weather increased the use of air conditioning. 

China's coal imports rose 17.6% year on year to 239 million tons in Q1-Q3 2013, the National Development and Reform Commission said. Coal inventory at China's major power plants added up to 73.26 million tons at the end of September 2013, which could be used for 21 days. Coal inventory at major ports totaled 44.16 million tons, up 8.3% from a year earlier. 

 

 

Source: www.thechinaperspective.com