* Oct DES ARA trades at $89.50/T, up 50 cents
* Sellers brace for further price slide
LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) – Physical prompt coal prices were
little changed on Tuesday, supported by oil’s rise towards $104,
but were set to come under renewed downward pressure in coming
weeks because of another wave of Chinese defaults and forced
price re-negotiation, traders and utilities said.
Prompt cargoes for delivery into Europe have held at around
$90 a tonne for the past few days while South African prices
have been slipping a little due as Indian buyers hold off in
anticipation of bargains.
Atlantic and Pacific-based sellers said they were bracing
themselves for another slide in prices as more genuinely
distressed cargoes – unwanted by the contracted buyer – are
offered at whatever price can be achieved.
“I thought the South African price had reached a floor of
$85 a tonne but with China, the situation with defaults has
become so much worse in the past two weeks, prices have got to
fall further,” one Asia-based trader said.
“I’ve re-negotiated the price twice already with one Chinese
trade buyer and I’m just hoping prices don’t move, at all, until
it loads, or they will run,” he said.
Indonesian coal producers said they were also just watching
the market price and hoping for the best.
TRADES
An October DES ARA cargo traded at $89.50, up 50 cents.
(Reporting by Jacqueline Cowhig, editing by William Hardy)
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