* Coal burn stays low in N. Europe on warm weather
* Utilities sell swaps, little buying interest seen
LONDON Jan 11 (Reuters) – Prompt European physical
coal prices slipped by around $1.00 a tonne on Wednesday as
utilities sold coal swaps in the face of weak coal burn across
most of northern Europe after the warmest winter for 30 years.
A $1.00 fall in oil prices as risk aversion returned to the
market and a rise in oil stockpiles in the U.S. also helped pull
coal lower, traders and utilities said.
“There was a lot of utility selling earlier today,
everybody’s got too much coal and the burn outside of southern
Europe has been poor,” one European utility source said.
“Oil fell, swaps fell and a lot of people backed off as a
result,” a European trader said.
No fixed price trades were reported.
Earlier in the week, a prompt DES ARA trade at $109.00 was
seen as an aggressively low number but on Wednesday March ARA
cargoes were offered at $105.75.
Analysts and suppliers expect prices to remain above $100.00
this year but to come under increased downward pressure during
January because key Chinese buyers will not be back in the
market until the end of the month.
Continued…
