As delegates gather in Bali for the annual Coaltrans Asia conference, they will be bidding farewell to the old days. Only last year, the Pacific market for both coking and thermal coal was buoyant following on from a successful round of annual price negotiations. Now it has all changed.
Thermal coal spot prices in the Pacific have been decreasing rapidly since the Australian producers settled the contract reference price for JFY2002 with Chubu EPC at 31.85/t FOB basis 6,700 kcal/kg GAD. This was a decrease of US$2.65/t or 7.68 per cent compared to last year, but the overall contract price is reported to be in the range US$29.00-30.00/t FOB when the tiered structure of the deal is taken into account....
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Approx 3000 words from CoalTrans International, May/June 2002,
page 11.
