Coal news and updates

The amount of coal traded and cleared on the ICE Futures platform in November fell 60.7% month on month to 76.7 million mt, energy exchange ICE Futures Europe and electronic trading platform globalCOAL's monthly report showed Tuesday.

 

The total, the lowest monthly volume since last December, was 23.4% lower year on year, and came after fresh record highs in both September and October.

 

The exchange cleared 50,546 lots of ICE Rotterdam Coal Futures during the month, down 60.9% month on month and 34.1% lower year on year to the the lowest monthly total since September 2012.

 

According to Platts data, Rotterdam prompt-month derivatives rose $1.60 during November to $82.60/mt on November 29.

 

November's volume of ICE Richards Bay Futures traded and cleared was 10.6 million mt of coal, down 76.6% from October's record of 45.5 million mt to a three-month low. It, however, was up 20.2% year on year.

 

Richards Bay December swaps contracts were rangebound during November, losing 65 cents to end the month at $84.10/mt, according to Platts data.

 

The 15.5 million mt of globalCOAL ICE Newcastle coal traded and cleared in November was down 24% on month at a three-month low, but was 7.2% higher compared with November 2012.

 

Newcastle prompt-month paper prices were also steady during November, ending the month at $85.60/mt, according to Platts data, up 85 cents from $84.75/mt on November 1.

 

The firms noted in their report that 22.5% of the November volume was traded as options, which, according to Platts calculation, amounts to 17.2 million mt of coal.

 

The report said 28% of the total options volume were Rotterdam contracts, 13% were Richards Bay contracts, and 10% were Newcastle contracts.

 

 

Source: Platts