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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":" LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Prompt physical coal prices rose by 50-75 U.S. cents a tonne on Friday as players covered short positions and Indian buying showed signs of picking up after several months of a lull. Traders and utilities in Europe short of Colombian tonnes due to delays to shipments from two of 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-6802","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\/6802","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=6802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Prompt physical coal prices\nrose by 50-75 U.S. cents a tonne on Friday as players covered\nshort positions and Indian buying showed signs of picking up\nafter several months of a lull.\t\n Traders and utilities in Europe short of Colombian tonnes\ndue to delays to shipments from two of the country's biggest\nexporters, Drummond and Prodeco, have been seeking replacement\ncargoes, helping to bolster DES ARA prices.\t\n The gap between South African physical prices and API4 coal\nswaps has narrowed substantially, enough to tempt Indian trade\nbuyers back into the market, suppliers said.\t\n South African coal supply for January is extremely tight,\nexporters, traders and utilities said.\t\n Almost nothing is available now for January and shrinking\nvolumes for February, they said.\t\n A bid for 300,000 tonnes or two capesize cargoes worth, of\nFebruary loading South African coal at $107.00 was on screen\ntrading platform globalCOAL on Friday, against an offer of one\n75,000 tonne cargo.\t\n The unusually high size of this prompt bid - a bid or offer\nfor more than a cape's worth is almost unheard of - versus the\noffer for only part of the tonnage sought is the best visible\nindicator of the market's tightening, they said.\t\n Indian cement and sponge iron makers have this week bought\nseveral prompt South African cargoes and are seeking more, but\nthe power sector is still squeezed between fixed electricity\ntariffs, strong coal prices and the weak rupee.\t\n \"Every rupee, every paisa counts for the consumers, even\nmore now than before they want the lowest prices and they are\nlooking at a variety of coals, South African, Australian,\nAmerican,\" one major Indian trade buyer said.\t\n \"Last year there was a marked lack of Indian spot demand due\nto the disconnection between swaps and physical but now there's\nnot much of a gap, just a small premium and the buyers are more\ncomfortable, don't feel too exposed,\" a major coal exporter to\nIndia said.\t\n India's demand for South African coal remained robust\nthroughout 2011 but the vast majority of cargoes shipped were\nsold under index-linked, term contracts rather than spot, a\ntrend which sucked liquidity from the spot market last year.\t\n India took just over 16 million tonnes from South Africa in\n2011, closely followed by China which imported 13.2 million\ntonnes after a Q4 surge in buying.\t\n ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\t\n GRAPHIC: South African coal exports monthly: r.reuters.com\/byx89r<\/a>\t\n ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\t\n While total South African exports for the calendar year were\nlittle changed at 64.6 million tonnes, up from 63.4 in 2010, the\nfinal total was several million tonnes higher than many\nproducers had forecast at this time last year.\t\n South African rail operator Transnet Freight Rail showed a\nmarked increase in performance in the second half of the year,\nleaving exporters with more spot coal to sell than they ever\nexpected, coal which was absorbed by China.\t\n Chinese buyers are likely to remain sidelined until after\nthe end-January New Year holidays, having built up stockpiles in\nNovember and December, exporters said.\t\n \"Everybody knows the Chinese stockpile ahead of the New Year\nand they bought a huge amount this past quarter but you can't\nmake any more assumptions from that about how much they'll buy,\nthe time to gauge the market is after their New Year,\" one\nexporter said.\t\n \t\n TRADES \t\n Two March delivery DES ARA cargoes traded at $110.00 and\n$110.50 on globalCOAL.\t\n \t\n PRICES \t\n A February cargo was bid at $107.00 and offered at $108.00,\nup 50-75 cents on the bid.\t\n A March South African cargo was bid at $107.00 and offered\nat $107.25, also up around 50 cents. \t\n A February DES ARA cargo was bid at $109.00 and offered at\n$111.50, up 50 cents.\t\n\t\n (Reporting by Jacqueline Cowhig; editing by James Jukwey)<\/pre>\n