Thermal and coking coal shipments from Port Waratah Coal Services' terminals at Newcastle port to Japan rose to 4.9 million mt in July, up 48% month on month, and Japan's highest offtake volume from the Australian port since October last year, said the company in an operating report Tuesday.
Japanese power plants were seen actively seeking about three-five 65,000-mt Panamax cargoes of Newcastle 6,300 kcal/kg GAR thermal coal in the spot market, Platts reported Monday. This was due to the delayed restart of some of shut nuclear power reactors in Japan.
Japan's offtake from the PWCS terminals fell to a multi-year low of only 3.3 million mt in June 2014. This low-point in Japanese offtake coincided with a sharp decline in spot prices for Newcastle 6,300 kcal/kg GAR thermal coal to below $70/mt FOB in June, that went to touch a low of $67/mt in mid-July, according to Platts data.
PWCS' coal shipments to Japan reached a high of 5.1 million mt in January 2013, according to PWCS data. CHINA TAKES LESS COAL FROM PWCS IN JULY
China's offtake of thermal and coking coal from the two PWCS-operated terminals at Newcastle port fell to 2 million mt in July -- down 10.7% month on month from 2.24 million mt in June, said PWCS in its report.
With Chinese domestic thermal coal prices becoming increasingly competitive over the past few months, Newcastle 5,500 kcal/kg NAR thermal coal -- a grade of Australian export coal sought by China buyers -- has come under heavy pressure dropping to $56/mt FOB basis, 20% ash content, Friday, Platts data showed.
South Korea received 1.64 million mt of Newcastle coal shipped from the PWCS terminals last month, up 32% month on month.
South Korean power companies have been procuring significant volumes of Australian thermal coal ahead of a new local tax on coal imports that came into effect July 1. The tax is levied on imports at a rate of Won 17 ($0.01)/kg for coal with a calorific value of under 5,000 kcal/kg NAR, and Won 19/kg for coal above this calorific value.
Taiwan, another significant destination for Newcastle coal exports, took delivery of 870,000 mt of coal shipments from the PWCS terminals in July, up from 570,000 mt in June.
Malaysia was another Asian country accounting for large volume of coal shipments from the PWCS terminals taking delivery of 440,000 mt in July - about 4.4% of July's monthly volume, according to the PWCS report.
Port Waratah's two coal terminals at Newcastle in the Australian state of New South Wales shipped 10.07 million mt of coal last month -- a nine-month high, and 8.96 million mt of this was thermal coal or around 89%. The remaining 11% of PWCS coal exports were semi-soft coking coal, or about 1.1 million mt.
The Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group terminal operated by coal producers including BHP Billiton and Whitehaven Coal did not release any export data for July.
