LONDON: European physical coal prices dipped on Monday as North American sellers began to replace lost Colombian supplies to Europe and as greater supplies of electricity in South Africa eased fears of power cuts causing mine outages there.
Coal prices for delivery in March into Europe's main import terminals of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp (ARA) were valued around $85.40 a tonne on Monday afternoon, about 25 cents below Friday's close.
At the same time, South African cargoes for export in April from its Richards Bay terminal were down almost $2.50 from Friday's close to a mid-point between bids and offers of $80.40 a tonne.
"In the Atlantic basin, US miners are stepping in to make up for the 5 million tonnes export shortfall from Colombia, so prices dipped," one coal trader said, adding that European stock levels were also healthy.
New regulations in Colombia, governing the loading of coal onto vessels, has led to export disruptions as some miners have struggled to implement technologies needed to comply with new laws.
In South Africa, national power supplier Eskom said that electricity supplies this week looked better than they did last week, when it warned of extreme tightness of the grid.
South African power outages have previously led to export disruptions as mines and ports suffered electricity blackouts.
Power supplies are expected to be constrained in Africa's largest economy over the next two years as Eskom scrambles to bring new plants online to meet rising demand.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.