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Forecasts and market analysis based on price assessments from Fastmarkets MB and Fastmarkets AMM

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November 2009 | Steel Raw Materials


Port stocks grow as demand rises: Coke and Coking Coal Highlights


Infrastructure constraints are adding tightness to the seaborne coking coal market. The difficulties in shipping Australian material are well-documented and have allowed US and Canadian miners to make more sales to Asia this year than in recent years.

The demand for seaborne coking coal continues to climb as Asian demand strengthens and European demand comes out of the doldrums. Despite rising storage costs, coking coal stockpiles alongside berths at Rotterdam ports are rising. This indicates that purchasers are speculating by buying coking coal ahead of expected price hikes over the coming months. Both US and Australian coking coal spot prices have been on the rise over the course of 2009, rising to about $140/tonne fob for spot tonnages of US hard coking coal recently, from about $115/tonne fob at the start of the year. We have also heard that Australian hard coking coal prices are in the $160-170/tonne fob range.

As a result, we are hearing of further plans by miners to expand production capabilities. Peabody Energy is planning to increase total coal production as high as 32m tpy, with as much as 15m tpy...

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