South African coal to Europe hit new price high

Prices of prompt South African coal cargoes FOB Richards Bay and coal delivered into Europe hit fresh records for the second time this week on strong demand and tight supply.

Surging API2 and API4 coal swaps values, in line with high oil and other energy markets, also boosted physical coal prices.
This week most days have seen close to a million tonnes of physical coal trade on globalCOAL’s screen and via brokers, a significant rise in volume from a year ago, due to the entry of banks and oil trading companies into the coal market.

Both FOB and DES prices could still rise sharply due to continued strong demand, tight supply and the expectation of continued high oil prices, traders, utilities and producers said.

Reuters