Market overview from globalCoal for February 15

Despite talk of a deferral on Greece's bail-out package sending the Euro downwards, growing concerns over Iran led to the energy complex seeing gains across the board. In thin trading, the financial coal market saw the benchmark Cal 13 contracts add around $0.50 across the three main indices. These moves up were reflected in the physical market where index-qualifying trades were concluded in the DES ARA and Richard Bay hubs at higher levels. Meanwhile, April Brent crude traded up to a 6-month high to end the day (@ 5pm) at ~$118.60/bbl.

With its nuclear plants shut down, and coal-fired power plants running near capacity, Japan's import of thermal coal in January rose about 13% y-o-y, from 4.7 million tonnes in 2011 to 5.3 million tonnes last month. Chinese buyers which were expected to come back into the market after the Chinese New Year are still nowhere to be found. High inventory, port congestion and softening domestic coal prices seem to be the key reasons keeping them away. Tenders into Korea seem well offered, putting further downward pressure on prices in Asia. The only well supported price is Australian coal, as more signs of rain seem evident while they are still recovering from severe rains from late January.

globalCoal trades this week

	Product	Expiry	Price	Volume	Origin	Delivery Point	EFP
13/02/2012	Phys NEWC Index	Jun'12	$ 0.75	75,000
14/02/2012	Phys RB1	Mar'12	$ 104.75	50,000
14/02/2012	Phys RB1	Apr'12	$ 103.20	75,000			EFP
14/02/2012	Phys API#4 Index	Apr'12	$ 0.00	75,000
14/02/2012	Phys ARA (DES)	Mar'12	$ 97.00	65,000	R	Antw
14/02/2012	Phys ARA (DES)	Feb'12	$ 96.00	65,000	R	Antw
15/02/2012	Phys ARA (DES)	Mar'12	$ 97.25	65,000	R	Ams/Rot
15/02/2012	Phys RB1	Mar'12	$ 105.25	50,000