LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) – Physical coal prices in Europe
held steady for the second day on Tuesday, supported by oil
which rose in early trading and largely ignoring bearish
fundamentals.
There were too many variable price-driving factors currently
at work for the market’s direction to be clear, traders and
end-users said.
Coal is typically thinly-traded during the European summer
months and tends to track oil’s moves in the absence of many
physical trades, as it has during the past month.
The market seemed roughly evenly split between those players
who firmly believed prices have already fallen to the lowest
level likely this year and will slowly recover in the coming
months, and those who believe the worst is still to come.
“While some have begun to call for a bullish turn in thermal
prices, we remain skeptical that the fundamentals are yet ripe
for such a change,” Credit Suisse said in a research note on
Tuesday.
“In particular, any meaningful recovery will rest on Chinese
and Indian demand (respectively 19 percent and 13 percent of the
seaborne market) and we continue to see downside risks to the
strength of their propensity to import through the remainder of
2012,” Credit Suisse said.
Oil slipped on Tuesday as concerns about slowing economic
growth and curbed demand for petroleum countered hopes for more
monetary stimulus from central banks in the U.S. and Europe
.
CHINA PRICES SEEN WEAKENING
Continued…
