Market overview from globalCoal for February 7
Wednesday, February 8 2012 - 02:26 AM WIB
Today coal markets saw stunted activity after an initial flurry of interest. In morning trading prices fell away slightly with more weakness seen in prompt markets, led again by the API#2. We saw a Feb12 DES trade illustrate this with $97.50 trading. From here though coal traded sideways, oil markets provided some support to minimise the slide although the front end never really recovered its early losses. The prompt ended the day slightly lower whilst the Cal13 product showed mild gains. Brent ended the day up $0.75/bbl at ~$116.65/bbl.
The CNY has officially ended but the Chinese buyers are still adopting a wait-and-see approach. With domestic prices at RMB 775 (below the NDRC price cap of RMB 800) and high stock levels at major ports, there is no firm interest from buyers for imported coal. Market participants opined that there would be little activity in Q1 until the stocks are consumed. (*)
| Product | Expiry | Price | Volume | Origin | Delivery Point | EFP | |
| 07/02/2012 | ICE Rotterdam Coal Futures | Q4'12 | $ 112.00 | 15,000 | |||
| 07/02/2012 | ICE Rotterdam Coal Futures | Q4'12 | $ 112.05 | 15,000 | |||
| 07/02/2012 | Phys NEWC Index | Q3'12 | $ 0.45 | 75,000 | |||
| 07/02/2012 | Phys ARA (DES) | Feb'12 | $ 97.50 | 75,000 | ACPRSU | Rott |