LONDON: Physical European coal prices drifted lower on Thursday as official figures revealed a drop in coal-fired power generation in Britain, a major importer of the fuel, while fundamentals for Atlantic Basin producers remained little changed.
Coal for delivery in January into Europe's main import terminals Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp (ARA) settled at $83.45 a tonne, down from a settlement of $84.45 a tonne on Wednesday.
South African shipments for January saw a bid/offer range of $83.50-$84 a tonne and settled at $83.85 per tonne, compared with Wednesday's settlement of $84.90, according to data on trading platform globalCOAL.
European and South African price levels were becoming increasingly discounted to Australian cargoes, which were priced at $85 a tonne for delivery in January on Thursday.
Britain's coal-fired power generation was 3 percent lower in the first nine months of 2013 compared with a year earlier, government data showed on Thursday.
Colombia said last week that it would not reach its 2013 coal output targets.
Societe Generale said in a research note on Wednesday it expected Colombian exports to drop from 77.4 million tonnes in 2012 to 68.4 million this year, the lowest level since 2008.
Despite the potential shortfall in Colombian exports, the global coal market remained oversupplied, and a price recovery was unlikely before late 2014, the bank said.
In Asia, Chinese officials plan to raise the quality threshold for coal imports in a bid to boost efficiency in its coal sector. The move will likely lead to a drop in low-quality Indonesian coal imports while boosting Australian intake.
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