Market overview from globalCoal for December 30

In line with the rest of this week, the coal market fell again as negative sentiment dominates and the Euro continues to weaken � the currency dropped to a 10-year low against the Yen today. The financial coal market saw just a handful of trades and values on the benchmark Cal 12 contracts fell by around $0.75 across the three main indices. The physical market also ended the year on a very quiet note and no trades were concluded. Meanwhile, front-month Brent crude traded down $1.25 to end the day (@ 1pm) at ~$106.75/bbl.

As expected, not much liquidity was seen in the last trading day of the year. The tightness of supply has provided support to the newc market, preventing further decline to prices. Signs of Chinese buyers returning with bids for Jan loading 5700NAR high sulphur Indo material at $105/mt CFR and 5500NAR Indo coal again at $103/mt CFR for Feb delivery. ** NB PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE FREIGHT CURVE BELOW IS DATED 23/12/11 � A NEW CURVE WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM NEXT WEEK (*)

globalCoal trades this week

	Product	Expiry	Price	Volume	Origin	Delivery Point	EFP
28/12/2011	Phys RB1	Feb'12	$106.40	50000			EFP
29/12/2011	Phys ARA (DES)	Feb'12	$113.00	50000	ACPRS	Ams/Rot	EFP