MONTHLY SUMMARY OF IMPORTED COAL & PETCOKE

Indicative Pet Coke Price

Indicative Coking Coal Price

Indonesian Coal News:

Indonesia has set a higher monthly benchmark price for its middle-grade coal for May from a month earlier, but has lowered the prices for high and low-grade coal, the energy minister said in a statement. The Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry had set the country's coal reference price (HBA) at 275.64 U.S. dollars per metric ton, last year showing a significant increase of around 200 U.S. dollars from January 2021.Meanwhile, Indonesia's thermal coal exports in April fell by 8% m-o-m compared to March, according to a data from

Statistics Indonesia.

Indonesia is trying to reduce its carbon footprint and in the process aims at finalizing a plan to give direction to its energy transition ambitions by August. The country's energy ministry is collaborating with the Ministry of state-owned enterprises, the Ministry of Finance and stateowned utilities to work on and complete the Comprehensive Investment and Policy Plan (CIPP), which will serve as the framework for Indonesia's energy transition. The CIPP will emphasize developing new transmission networks, building base load, new plans for the early retirement of coal-fired power plants and creating a smooth renewable energy supply chain, said the ministry.

Australian Coal News:

Australia’s metallurgical coal exports are likely to go up to 172 million mt by FY 2027-28 from 163 million mt in FY 2021-22. Although China has started buying Australian coal again, it is anticipated that most of the volume will go to India. As per the Australian government's latest Resources and Energy Quarterly, Australian producers would prefer a long-term offtake contract with a steelmaker in India over one in China. In the recent past, weather events have disrupted the Australian coking coal supply but now exports are proving to be beneficial due to a robust pipeline of investments.

*In Australia soaring prices of coal last year led to ramping up of a few new coal mines. Australia Pacific Coal, an Australian miner, is preparing to restart a thermal coal mine in New South Wales State in the fourth quarter after securing a supply agreement with a global coal buyer. The miner has been reorganizing its operations and looking for finance as it gears up to produce 3 million tonnes of coal per year from its mine in the Hunter Valley. As per sources, a significant portion of the project's funding will be linked to a new coal marketing and supply agreement, with an international third party with extensive global coal marketing experience.

South African Coal News:

South Africa, the fifth-largest coal exporter, accounting for about 5% of the global volume and the largest African producer and consumer is expected to further increase its coal consumption in coming years, experts say. South Africa's coal consumption is projected to increase by 5.3% from 2022 to 2025 as the coal power plant fleet's performance increases. In terms of exports, the gap left by Russian coal supplies in Europe has been largely filled by South Africa.

In South Africa, business associations are keen on keeping the coal-fired power plants running, despite government plans to phase out the fuel. Local business associations have prepared proposals that are being supported by local politicians and several state-run power companies operating the coal mines. Local communities have expressed concerns about the economic impact after the closure of coal power plants. The closures are part of South Africa’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP), an effort to reduce the electricity sector’s greenhouse gas emissions.

European Coal News:

In Europe, coal prices dipped below $100 a ton, their lowest since 2021. The decrease was due to a drop in power demand and curbed gas prices. Power plants have been favorable towards gas over coal, with strong imports of liquefied natural gas boosting stockpiles and improving the region’s energy-security outlook. The change is significant compared to last year when Germany burned coal at the fastest pace. On the import side, imports of coal to northwest Europe had remained relatively static at around 5m tonnes/month since the beginning of the year and are likely to remain the same in the coming months.

In Europe, warmer weather and soaring energy prices resulted in a dip in overall demand of coal generation according to a report. Coal generation dipped by almost 11%, compared to the same period 12 months before. The drop was mainly due to emergency EU legislation, which set a voluntary electricity demand reduction target for member states over the winter to cope with reduced supply. As per analysis, most member states met the 5% energy consumption reduction target set out. As a result, total EU electricity demand fell by an estimated 6% on the five-year average between November 2022 and March this year.

US Coal News:

In the US, Illinois Basin and Appalachia coal sales prices in the US increased by 26.1% and 80%, respectively, from the first quarter of 2022 due to improved price realizations in both domestic and export markets.US-based Alliance Resource Partners shipped more coal to higher-priced export markets in the first quarter of 2023 as domestic utility customers moved their committed tonnage forward amid low natural gas costs as per company sources.

The US is planning to impose new carbon pollution standards upon its coal- and gas-fired power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), will state that new and existing power plants will have to meet a range of new standards to cut their emissions of polluting gases. The EPA predicts that the rules will drive the country to switch to cleaner energy, install carbon capture technology or shut down the utilities entirely. EPA forecasts that the standards would prevent the emission of up to 617m tons of carbon dioxide from coal and gas plants over the next two decades, equivalent to the yearly emissions of around half of all the cars in the US.

Pet Coke News:

The price of petcokecalcined grade FOB USGC dropped by around 1% in the US market, while the price of petcoke fuel grade 4.5% Sulphur FOB USGC declined by approximately 4% due to the decreased price of feedstock crude oil in the US market. The demand for petcoke seemed to be low to moderate as the construction sector was down due to labour shortage. However, the supply of petcoke in the country was driven by the declined prices of feedstock crude oil as cheaper raw materials helped manufacturers to reduce their costs and improve their financial position.

Shipping Update:

The Baltic Exchange’s main sea freight index, fell drastically owing to the pressure by lower rates across all vessel segments. The overall index, for capesize, panamax and supramax shipping vessels, dropped 32 points. The capesize index lost 64 points, or 2.4%, to 2,566. Average daily earnings for capesizes, transporting 150,000-tonne cargoes carrying commodities like coal and iron ore, fell by $538 to $21,276. Recently, Australian coal has been more active but to lift up the rates to the next level, some more Brazilian iron ore would be needed, said a shipbroker. Average daily earnings for panamaxes, carrying coal or grain cargoes declined by $324 to $13,009.

Russia is looking at the transportation of its cargo, including coal, for transshipment in the North Korean port of Rajin to kick start soon. Trade routes between Russia and North Korea were frozen by Pyongyang in early 2020 over concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. The Khasan-Rajin project was launched some years ago with the motive of delivering cargo by rail from Russia to the North Korean city of Rason with subsequent shipment by sea to ports in other countries. The project was initiated in 2000, and work did not begin until 2008. However, it was suspended in 2016 when South Korea quit over concerns about Pyongyang's nuclear tests.