* Cal 2013 S.African trades at $111.00/T
* No prompt fixed price trades seen
LONDON Feb 22 (Reuters) – Prompt physical coal prices
rose by around 50 cents on Wednesday in line with oil’s gains
but aside from a few Calendar 2013 trades, activity was muted.
Oil hit $123 a barrel on Wednesday, a 9-month high, as
Iran-related tensions and supply risks overshadowed weak
economic data from Europe and China.
“There’s still far too much coal, in Europe especially and
this rise in prices can’t be justified by fundamentals, which
are weak,” one European trader said.
“I was cautiously optimistic at the start of the year that
prices would steady and start recovering in a few months but
everybody is offering U.S. coal into everywhere possible,”
another trader said.
China’s import statistics for January showed a fall of 8
percent from December’s level.
On an annual basis, China’s coal imports rose nearly 4
percent and hit a record 22.14 million tonnes in November. South
African imports alone in Q4 were also at record levels for each
month.
But since the government imposed a price ceiling of $130 a
tonne on coal prices, domestic prices dropped sharply and fresh
import buying started to tail off.
Continued…
