LONDON, April 2 (Reuters) – Coal prices for physical prompt
delivery saw little movement on Monday morning but bid/offer
ranges remained at firm levels amid tense oil and gas markets.
Brent crude oil prices rose from an opening of under $123 a
barrel on Monday morning to over $124 in the afternoon as the
U.S. published supportive manufacturing data and as a North Sea
oil and gas platform outage continued to delay loading.
Traders said the bearish carbon market also supported coal
prices as lower emissions costs would benefit coal over
gas-fired power generation in Europe.
“The further CO2 prices drop, the more attractive coal-fired
power generation becomes than gas production and utilities will
burn as much coal to generate electricity as they can,” one coal
trader said.
Carbon prices plunged to record lows on Monday after data
showing emissions in the European Union’s main scheme to fight
greenhouse gases dropped below expectations last year.
German 2013 power generation margins from coal-fired
generation are currently around 17 euros a megawatt-hour more
profitable than electricity produced from gas, which marks the
highest coal-over-gas spread since Q2 2008, according to Reuters
data.
PRICES
A May South African cargo saw a bid/offer spread of
$104/105.25 per tonne, according to GLOBALcoal data.
A May DES ARA cargo was offered at $101 a tonne, and a June
cargo was offered at $101.5.
(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by James Jukwey)
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