Coal news and updates

Iron ore futures clawed back much of the week’s previous losses and coking coal contracts hit a new high for 2017 in China on Thursday, one day ahead of new data on housing prices from major cities across the country.

 

The futures contract for a metric tonne of iron ore on the Dalian Commodity Exchange on Thursday gained as much as 7.3 per cent to Rmb561.5, according to data from Wind, briefly erasing losses for the week before settling back to a rise of 4.5 per cent in afternoon trading.

 

That jump was tracked by futures for coking coal, with the price of the key steelmaking ingredient up as much as 6.9 per cent from the previous day’s close at Rmb1,451.5 per tonne. That was the highest level for the year to date

 

The failure to match those gains by thermal coal – used for energy generation and up just 1.6 per cent in the afternoon session on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange – suggested the rally was primarily connected to outlook for the construction sector. 

 

Source: Financial Times