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\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n \n \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" * Weak demand drives coal prices to $80\/tonne and below * China adequately supplied with coal * Australian coal producers struggle to cut costs PERTH, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Australia’s thermal coal price benchmark dropped to around $80 per tonne this week, falling as strengthening freight prices into China dampened already tepid demand from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15700\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}* Weak demand drives coal prices to $80\/tonne and below\n * China adequately supplied with coal\n * Australian coal producers struggle to cut costs\n\n PERTH, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Australia's thermal coal price\nbenchmark dropped to around $80 per tonne this week, falling as\nstrengthening freight prices into China dampened already tepid\ndemand from the world's largest coal consumer. \n Australian coal prices have tumbled nearly 30 percent since\nthe beginning of the year, pressured by weak demand due to a\nslowing global economy and ample supplies.\n Australia's Newcastle spot index for the week\nclosed at $80.17 per tonne on Wednesday, down from $83.05 last\nweek, data from online trading platform globalCOAL shows.\n \"Australian coal is getting quite hard to sell into China,\"\none Singapore-based trade source said. \n A 50,000 tonne parcel of standard Newcastle coal, with a\nheating value of 6,000 kcal\/kg, for November delivery, traded at\n$76 per tonne earlier this weak, not far from prices for lower\ngrade 5,500 kcal\/kg coal. \n \"This looks pretty tight against the production costs,\" the\ntrade source said. \n The weekly Chinese domestic coal price index, published\nWednesday, inched up 0.6 percent to 641 yuan ($100), from 637\nyuan last week. \n China typically imports coal when domestic prices are higher\nthan the cost of imports, but appears to be well supplied. \n \"China's got sufficient coal for now, it seems,\" Swiss bank\nUBS said in a note to clients, adding that pre-winter stocking\nwas unlikely to get underway in earnest until November. \n Coal prices typically soften in the third quarter of the\nyear, which is sandwiched between the peak summer heating and\nwinter cooling demand seasons. \n China's power output growth fell to a three-month low in\nSeptember, as a slowing economy dampened electricity demand from\nindustrial users. \n \n AUSTRALIA BELT-TIGHTENING\n With prices weak, Australian producers are continuing to cut\nproduction and lay off workers to whittle down costs, as they\ntake the view that prices are unlikely to rebound to their\nprevious levels. \n Ensham Resources announced another round of job cuts at its\ncoal mine in Australia's Bowen Basin this week, saying it would\nlay off 250 workers, adding to 150 jobs cut in August. The job\ncuts will nearly halve the mine's workforce to 500 workers as it\ndrops production from 5 million tonnes per year to 3 million\ntonnes to cope with lower coal prices. \n \"The prospect of a rebound in coal prices in the near term\nappears remote. In such circumstances it is vital that mine\noperations are adjusted in order to sustain the business,\" Chief\nExecutive Peter Westerhuis said in a statement. \n Xstrata also confirmed it would be cutting contractor staff\nat its Oaky Creek coal operations as it tries to cut costs\nthrough a move to cut 600 workers at its mines. \n Global miner BHP Billiton warned on Wednesday that\ncost pressures and a strong Australian dollar make it hard to\njustify expanding coal operations in Australia. \n($1=6.2545 Chinese yuan)\n\n (Reporting by Rebekah Kebede; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)<\/pre>\n