* October DES trades unchanged at $93.50/T
* Colombia Fenoco unions yet to return to work
LONDON Aug 16 (Reuters) – Physical European prompt coal
prices were unchanged at around $93-$94 a tonne for a second day
on Thursday as the market waited to see when Colombian shipments
would resume and whether that would trigger a bout of selling
and a further price fall.
Prices dropped by $2 a tonne on Tuesday after a Colombian
court ruled that a strike by workers on the Fenoco railway was
illegal and the workers voted to return to work, but the union
is waiting for the Labour Ministry to confirm whether the vote
was legal or not.
Mine workers at Colombia’s La Jagua mine, owned by
Glencore’s Prodeco unit, are still on strike after 28 days, but
Prodeco could start moving coal from the Calenturitas mine once
the railway resumes normal operations.
So far, as much as 4 million tonnes is estimated to have
been lost from Colombia’s 2012 exports, according to industry
sources.
Fenoco is owned by the producers for whom it moves coal to
port – Drummond, Prodeco and Goldman Sachs
.
“Although the union is challenging the legality of the vote
and will probably appeal the court decision, any reversal would
likely be some months down the line, with the tighter prompt
engendered by these strikes still likely to fade,” Credit Suisse
said in a research note on Thursday.
“It’s all rather uncertain at present – unclear precisely
how much tonnage has been lost and how much of the rally when
the strikes began was due to sentiment,” one utility source
said.
Continued…
