Market overview from globalCoal for January 13

We saw a bearish end to the week with coal losing value across all main hubs and on both paper and physical markets on the back of several outside factors. Despite opening marginally higher, oil and other energy markets fell away with coal following suit. News of credit downgrades for Austria and France and expectations of more in the Eurozone saw the Euro fall heavily in the afternoon. This impacted the API#2 which fell more than the API#4 and Swap NEWC markets during the afternoon. Front month Brent ended the day down by ~$0.75/bbl to ~$110.50/bbl whilst the Euro had lost over 1.5c at one point. At the end of the day API#2 was lower by ~$1.75 whilst the API#4 and NEWC had dropped by ~$0.75.

In Asian hours, the general low key trading environment still remained, as Chinese interest continues to wind down for Lunar New Year celebrations. Newcastle coal was again well bid in the prompt, with no sign of coal availability in Feb '12, and limited tonnes for March '12. The day finished well, with Feb RB trading at $106 in 150kt with a restricted laycan. Prices discovery of Indonesian coals after the recent Korean tender continues to put downward pressure on prices.

globalCoal trades this week

	Product	Expiry	Price	Volume	Origin	Delivery Point	EFP
09/01/2012	Phys ARA (DES)	Mar'12	$109.00	50000	ACPRS	Ams/Rot	EFP
09/01/2012	SWAP NEWC Index	2012	$112.75	60000
09/01/2012	SWAP NEWC Index	Q2'12	$111.50	15000
10/01/2012	Phys RB1	Mar'12	$107.00	25000
13/01/2012	Phys API#2 Index (DES)	Feb'12	-$ 1.00	50000	C	Amst	?