Prices for coal shipped from South Africa’s Richards Bay, the continent’s biggest export facility for the fuel, posted their first gain in four weeks on speculation that banks are more active in the market.

Export prices advanced $1.20, or 1.4 percent, to an average of $84.60 a
metric ton in the week to Feb. 5, according to McCloskey Group Ltd.
Prices rose last month to the highest since November 2008. The terminal
is the biggest source for Europe of coal burned for power and is owned
by South Africa’s largest exporters of the fuel, including BHP Billiton
Ltd., Anglo American Plc and Xstrata Plc.

We saw “banks involved on both sides for the majority of the deals,”
Mike Newman, an analyst at Petersfield, England- based researcher
McCloskey, said by phone today. They may be hedging coal derivatives
and “it remains to be seen whether or not the trades were genuine
demand,” he said.

Coal exports from Richards Bay fell last month to the lowest since
September. Outbound shipments were 4.87 million tons, the least since
September’s 4.16 million tons, according to data posted on the
terminal’s Web site today. The terminal exported 4.12 million tons in
January 2009 and 5.55 million tons in December of that year.

At January’s shipment rate, the terminal will export 58 million tons of
coal this year. The terminal is scheduled to boost its annual export
capacity to 91 million tons by the end of this year’s first quarter.
Shipments came to 61.14 million tons last year.

Coal Derivatives

Benchmark European coal derivatives fell 13 percent in the four weeks
to Feb. 5. Coal for delivery to Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Antwerp with
settlement next year fell to $90.25 a ton, according to trades and
indicative prices. The data are drawn from information supplied by ICAP
Plc, GFI Group Inc., Spectron Group Ltd., Credit Suisse Group AG,
McCloskey Group Ltd., Bloomberg and Tradition Financial Services.

Coal prices at the Australian port of Newcastle, a benchmark for Asia,
fell 6.8 percent. The index for coal prices at the New South Wales port
shed $6.70 to $91.83 a ton in the week to Feb. 5, according to the
globalCOAL NEWC Index.

Coal prices at Qinhuangdao, a benchmark in China, fell the most in more
than a year as winter demand continued to ease. Prices for coal with an
energy value of 5,500 kilocalories per kilogram dropped to between 760
and 770 yuan ($112.79) a ton as of today, down for the second
consecutive week, data from the China Coal Transport & Distribution
Association showed. That’s a weekly decline of 3.8 percent, the most
since December 2008, when prices slumped 10 percent.

Source: Bloomberg

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