* Mar S.African cargoes trade at $103.50, $105/T
* Colombian, U.S. coal offered with no bids
LONDON Feb 10 (Reuters) – Prompt physical coal prices
slipped by around 75 cents for the third day running, despite
freezing European weather that has boosted gas and power values
due to a surge in heating demand, because utilities have little
available storage space.
European utilities are running out of stockpile space at the
key import hub of Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp and so are
hesitant about taking the opportunity of buying prompt cargoes,
which are $10 a tonne cheaper than forward, and placing them on
stocks to use later in the year.
“If anybody was to be buying actively right now, it ought to
be the big utilities who can play the contango, if they’ve got
space to stockpile,” one European trader said.
But this is not an option, utilities said, because they have
too much coal on their books which they will not need even if
the freeze continues for another few weeks.
“We’re not looking at buying now and stockpiling –
everybody’s nearly full up and we’re more worried about what to
do with what’s due to arrive,” one European utility source said.
“It’s almost all high-sulphur U.S. coal coming in now and
everybody, traders, utilities, you name it, is long and they’re
going to need to start shifting it,” another trader said.
Continued…
