According to McCloskey Group, export prices rose 45 cents to an average of USD 64.05 a ton in the week ended October 16th 2009.
Mr Andrew Wells assistant editor at McCloskey said that the week was very quiet. He speculated that buyers may be waiting for the October 25th 2009 to October 27th 2009 Coaltrans coal conference in London to get a better feel for the market.
Mr Sabine Schels a New York based analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch wrote in a report dated October 16th 2009 that prices at Richards Bay have dropped 39% over the past 12 months as companies cut output and jobs to deal with the worst recession since World War II. The coal market outlook should improve significantly.
Richards Bay Coal Terminal shipped 22% less of the fuel in September than a year earlier. Exports decreased to 4.16 million tonnes from 5.32 million tonnes. At its September shipment rate, the port will export 57.6 million tonnes of coal this year as compared with capacity of 76 million tonnes and shipments of 61.79 million tonnes last year.
The volume exported from Newcastle in the week dropped to 1.92 million tonnes from 2.01 million tonnes a week earlier. Nineteen ships, waiting to load 1.44 million tonnes of coal, were outside the harbor, down from 25 vessels.
(Sourced from www.businessday.co.za)
