Lower-grade coal discounts keep widening

摘要

Discounts for Russian and Kazakh thermal coal with a calo- rific value (CV) of NAR 5,500 kcal/kg delivered into Europe continue to widen in May — for the fifth month in a row — because of weak coal demand in Europe and bearish market sentiment. Discounts were assessed at around $11/t to the API 2 index on a cif Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) basis this month, up by $2.85/t from April. The discount for lower- quality product is applied after de-escalating prices on lower CV products to NAR 5,500 kcal/kg from NAR 6,000 kcal/kg. Some market participants estimated the discounts for lower CV coal at $10-13/t.