Market overview from globalCoal for March 09

Global markets ended the week on a much more confident note, thanks in no small part to the deal on Greek debt being concluded, coupled with today's bullish US jobs data. However, the financial coal market reversed some of the recent gains seen after a bout of profit-taking today, with the benchmark Cal 13 contracts falling by $0.45 on API#2, $0.10 on API#4 and $1.25 on swap NEWC. As with the rest of this week, the physical market was generally lacklustre and although values remain broadly unchanged in the DES ARA and Richards Bay hubs, we have seen a massive correction in Newcastle where the front-end is pricing ~$15 lower than a month ago. Meanwhile, April Brent crude continued its march upwards, trading up by $0.25 to end the day (@ 5pm) at ~$125.70/bbl.

The phys NEWC market has slipped tremendously during the last month, an Apr cargo is now offered at $106.50/mt (a discount of about $2.75 off the paper market) against a trade on 9th Feb at $114.00/mt. Market participants felt that the weakness in the prompt prices could give the Japanese more negotiation power in the contract settlement talks next week. It will be interesting to see if the settlement could even end up at the lower range of $115-$120/mt.

globalCoal trades this week

	Product	Expiry	Price	Volume	Origin	Delivery Point	EFP
05/03/2012	Phys RB1	Apr'12	$ 103.80	25,000
05/03/2012	Phys RB1	Apr'12	$ 103.80	50,000
06/03/2012	SWAP NEWC Index	Q2'12	$ 109.00	15,000
06/03/2012	Phys ARA (DES)	Apr'12	$ 95.00	65,000	R	Ams/Rot
06/03/2012	Phys RB1	Apr'12	$ 103.60	50,000
07/03/2012	SWAP NEWC Index	Q2'12	$109.25	15,000
09/03/2012	Phys NEWC (FOB Newcastle)	Apr'12	$105.00	25,000
09/03/2012	SWAP NEWC Index	Q2'12	$108.00	15,000
09/03/2012	SWAP NEWC Index	Q2'12	$108.00	15,000
09/03/2012	SWAP NEWC Index	Q2'12	$108.00	15,000
09/03/2012	SWAP NEWC Index	Q2'12	$108.00	15,000
09/03/2012	SWAP NEWC Index	Q2'12	$108.25	15,000