Platts Mulls Daily Coking Coal Price Data for China, Australia

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

25 Feb 2010

Platts, a provider of energy and metal data, is studying the publication of daily cash prices for coking coal shipped from Australia to China.

Platts is seeking industry feedback, it said in a coal newsletter dated today. It is also considering a dry bulk freight report between the two countries, it said.
BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, the world’s largest exporter of coking coal, is pressing Japanese customers to switch from annual contracts to shorter-term deals, UBS AG said. The coal producer may want to almost double annual prices for the steelmaking ingredient this year, the brokerage said.
Platts price publication would be based on cargoes leaving Australia’s main ports, using the Hay Point coal terminal in Queensland as a benchmark. The delivery would be “normalized” to the Qingdao port in North China, it said.
The BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, a joint venture between BHP Billiton Ltd. and Mitsubishi Corp., owns the Hay Point terminal near Mackay.
An agreement on coking coal contract prices this year may be delayed because major suppliers want to switch to quarterly pricing rather than annual contracts, South Korean steelmaker Posco said Jan. 14.
Platts is a unit of New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos.

Source: Bloomberg