* Plomin awards H1 tender to Macquarie
* Jan ARA trades at $109.75
LONDON Dec 15 (Reuters) – Physical prompt coal prices
held steady on Thursday as the market ignored choppy oil trade
but prices are likely to come under more pressure in the next
few weeks due to poor demand, traders and utilities said.
Brent and U.S. crude futures were volatile on Thursday,
pulled and pushed by the dollar, fresh concern over Europe’s
debt crisis and U.S. economic reports.
Any players still trying to sell January FOB cargoes are
likely to struggle to find buyers unless they discount heavily,
traders said.
“Everybody’s clearing the decks before the market basically
shuts down for the holidays,” one European trader said.
The award of Croatian utility Plomin’s latest tender to
Australian bank Macquarie is an indication of the market’s
weakeness, traders said.
Macquarie will supply four panamax cargoes of American 1.5
percent sulphur coal to Plomin in the first half of 2012 at a
discount to API2.
Continued…
