Coal news and updates

China coastal coal freight rates further drop

Freight rates for vessels shipping coal from north China ports to the south have been falling for 18 days, as end users took a wait-and-see attitude and anticipated further price falls.

The shipping rate for vessels of 50,000-60,000 DWT from Qinhuangdao to Guangzhou port stood at 27.1 yuan/t on August 11, down 0.2 yuan/t on day and down 2.0 yuan/t from a week ago, showed data from the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.

The rate for smaller vessels of 15,000-20,000 DWT from Qinhuangdao to Ningbo port in eastern China's Zhejiang province was 24.2 yuan/t on the same day, unchanged on day and down 0.3 yuan/t on week.

The rate for 30,000-40,000 DWT vessels to ship coal from Huanghua to Shanghai port edged down 0.1 on day and fell 0.6 yuan/t on week to 21.6 yuan/t on the same day.

Buying interests from downstream utilities still lacked steam despite successive price cuts and discounts made by miners.

Most traders seemed getting more bearish about the future thermal coal market, as the price cuts in the domestic market would undoubtedly add to downward risk, sources said.

Daily coal consumption at power plants under the six coastal utilities stood at 0.63 million tonnes on August 11, down 8.6% from a week ago, which was enough to cover 20 days of consumption, 1 day more than a week ago.

source: http://en.sxcoal.com