BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 6. Offers for Kazakh thermal coal delivered to Poland rose to $291.60-$314 per ton in the past two weeks, reflecting tightening supply in the European market, according to Argus, an international price reporting agency.
According to market participants quoted by Argus, offers for Kazakh thermal coal with a particle size of 0-300 mm delivered to Poland on a DAP basis stood at $291.60-$314 per ton over the past two weeks, up significantly from $185 per ton approximately five weeks earlier, as the Polish thermal coal market approached a supply deficit.
"The price rise reflected a shortage of available coal. Earlier this month, Polish trading companies sold Kazakh coal with a particle size of 5-25 mm on the retail market for $376 per ton, compared with $233 per ton approximately six weeks earlier," Argus reported.
Kazakhstan's thermal coal production fell by 0.3% year-on-year in September to 9.47 million tons, continuing its downward trend.
Demand for household and municipal coal in Kazakhstan during the current heating season is forecast at 7.3 million tons, down 154,000 tons from the previous year, as gasification expands and energy supply companies hold sufficient stocks.
Across the broader European seaborne coal market, prices reached new multi-year highs amid tightening global supply and improved prospects for coal-fired power generation as temperatures across the continent declined.
The price of physical cargoes of thermal coal with a calorific value of 6,000 kilocalories per kilogram (kcal/kg), delivered on a CIF basis to the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region, exceeded $150 per ton last week for the first time in three years, Argus reported.
