Coal news and updates

Rallying prices at the Henry Hub have lifted the peak-summer forward strip nearly 15% over the past three weeks in a move that could prove bearish for gas-fired power burns this summer.

 

Late last week, calendar-month prices for the June-July-August strip briefly topped $3 before settling to an average $2.97/MMBtu on April 30, S&P Global Platts' most recently published M2MS data shows.

 

Bullishness in the forward market has accompanied an even steeper rise in cash prices.

 

At mid-session May 3, Henry Hub spot gas was trading around $2.93/MMBtu – up 56 cents or nearly 24% since early April, according to data from the Intercontinental Exchange.

 

This winter, higher gas prices already put a damper on generator gas demand. From December to March, power burn averaged just 27.8 Bcf/d this season. Last winter, burns were about 6% higher, averaging 29.4 Bcf/d over the same period, S&P Global Platts Analytics data shows.

 

Absent a compensatory rise in temperatures and baseload cooling demand this summer, the ongoing wave of gas-to-coal switching will likely see gas burns underperform again compared with comparable 2020 levels.

 

Source : https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/coal