Coal news and updates

Indian traders expect steam coal prices to remain range-bound

March 20: Seaborne thermal coal prices are expected to remain range-bound despite periodic volatility in the remaining months of 2014, market sources said.

"Prices are quite volatile at this point, showing significant changes in a gap of 3-5 days. However, given the lukewarm demand from China, we believe prices would remain largely range-bound in 2014," a trading source said.

Another source said that South African coal prices are expected to remain volatile while Indonesian coal prices would remain rather flat.

RBCT spot prices (6,000 NAR) have shown significant movement, from $71/ton FOB in September 2013 to $86/ton FOB in January 2014 and again to $75/ton FOB in March.

"We expect such volatility to continue though within the prevailing range," he said.