Coal news and updates

* June ARA coal trades at $76.15 a tonne

* Mild winter resulted in healthy coal stocks

European physical coal prices dipped on Monday as oversupply continued to weigh on prices.

Cargoes for delivery in June to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp (ARA) traded at $76.15 a tonne in early afternoon on the GlobalCOAL trading platform, down $0.05 from their previous settlement.

Traders said there was little appetite among utilities for buying physical coal at the moment because the gas market was so well supplied, with many preferring to burn off the coal stocks they already have.

API2 2015 coal futures, which buyers use to hedge physical purchases, were up 0.80 percent at $83.60 a tonne, in reaction to increased tension over the weekend in Ukraine.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced new sanctions against some Russians on Monday to punish Moscow for its intervention in Ukraine, but said he was holding broader measures against Russia's economy "in reserve".

On the ground, pro-Moscow rebels showed no sign of curbing their uprising, seizing public buildings in another town in the east. Interfax news agency reported that the mayor of a further major eastern city, Kharkiv, had been shot and was undergoing an operation.

In Asian coal markets, producers are currently their own worst enemies, raising output in a bid to boost revenue in order to compensate for lower prices.

The short-term impact has been that spot prices have tumbled, with benchmark Australian thermal coal at Newcastle Port dropping to $73.12 a tonne in the week to April 25. That is not far from a 4-1/2-year low of $72.98 hit last month.

 

Source: Reuters