Coal news and updates

Prices rise on threat of Colombian supply disruptions

* August coal trades up $1.15 per tonne to $73.75

* September ARA coal trades at $74.15 a tonne

* October ARA coal trades at $73.50 a tonne

European physical coal prices edged higher on Wednesday on news of potential disruptions to supplies from Colombia's Cerrejon mine.

Cargoes for delivery in August to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp (ARA) traded at $73.75 a tonne on the globalCOAL platform, up $1.15 from Tuesday's settlement, while the September contract traded at $74.15 per tonne, up 20 cents.

Traders said prices rose due to the threat of supply disruption to Europe from Colombia's biggest coal miner.

There were unconfirmed reports on Wednesday that miners' access to the Cerrejon mine was blocked by a road strike, but a spokesman for the mine said he had no information about a blockage and that production and operations have not been hit.

Separately, Colombia's biggest mines have been hit by a week-long strike by mechanics, which has reached a stalemate and could at some point affect production..

Cerrejon also stopped some of its machinery in June to reduce pollution as exceptionally dry weather increased the amount of dust created during its operations.  



The company said part of the mine could remain closed until August if weather conditions do not improve.

The October ARA contract traded at $73.50 per tonne, flat with Tuesday's close.

"The market is still very well supplied, so even if we see short-term disruptions, they are unlikely to push up prices further out," a coal trader said.

He also said traded volumes for the August contract were small.

Some 50,000 tonnes of August ARA coal, 100,000 tonnes for September delivery, and 100,000 tonnes for October delivery had traded by 1600 GMT, according to data on online trading platform globalCOAL.

Source: Reuters