Coal news and updates

Power-station coal prices in Indonesia, the world’s biggest exporter, may rise this week amid demand from India, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

 

Three out of five traders predicted an increase while a fourth forecast prices will be steady. The fifth trader declined to comment. Two respondents said Indian buyers are seeking cargoes to replenish stocks as demand before the northern hemisphere winter continues.

 

Thermal coal with a calorific value of 5,800 kilocalories a kilogram and as much as 2 percent sulfur averaged $68.50 a metric ton previous, rising from $64 a ton in the period ended Nov. 1, according to the median estimate in the survey. The highest projection was $69.25.

 

Sub-bituminous coal with a heating value of 4,500 kilocalories a kilogram and maximum 1 percent sulfur averaged $43.50 a ton in the same week, compared with $43.75 a ton in the previous seven days, the survey shows. Coal with a calorific value of 4,000 kilocalories a kilogram and 0.5 percent sulfur averaged $36.40 a ton, up from $36.25.

 

Coal at the Australian port of Newcastle, the benchmark grade for Asia, gained by $1.30 to $81.90 a ton in the week ended Nov. 8, according to IHS McCloskey, a UK-based provider of coal data.

 

“The current market is oversupplied with low-calorific- value coal while 4,200 kilocalories a kilogram and higher qualities are almost sold out to traders and users until January 2014,” Marex Spectron, a broker in Singapore, said in a report yesterday.

 

Indonesian prices are on a gross-as-received and free-on- board basis at Kalimantan or Sumatra, the country’s two main coal regions. They represent cargoes loaded on Supramax vessels, which can carry about 50,000 tons. Actual prices may vary by grade, depending on moisture, ash and sulfur content, loading point and rate.

 

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/