The Coal Hub

Thermal coal and gas prices have coursed into a bull run, propelled by particularly strong demand across Asia, where electricity consumption is surging thanks to healthy economic growth just as seasonal needs rise with the onset of summer. Spot thermal coal cargo prices for export from Australia's Newcastle terminal last settled at $117/t, the highest level since February 2012. That...

Hydropower production in China has now contracted on a year-on-year basis during each of the last two months due to lower than normal rainfall. The contraction in hydropower output has remained a positive element for China’s thermal coal demand prospects and has been one reason why Commodore has remained bullish for near-term coal import prospects. Also of note is...

Northern China's Shanxi province produced 268.62 million tonnes of raw coal in the first four months, almost unchanged from a year ago, showed data from the province's statistical office. In January-April, the added value of the coal industry increased by 0.2% over the same period last year. In April, raw coal production totaled 74.11 million tonnes, up 1.4% year on year,...

European gas prices have done whatever it takes to remain uncompetitive with coal in a bid to free up supply to add to storage. Prompt gas markets have stayed above key support levels, which have climbed with the recent rise in coal and emissions prices, as set out in a recent white paper. Dutch and German near-curve prices have remained in...

By: Alex Younevitch, S&P Global Platts It is not uncommon for people in various commodity industries to believe that their markets exist in some kind of a happy bubble, where only the obvious supply and demand forces or targeted regulations can make or ruin their day. This often goes for the world of coal too. Shipping is a perfect example of a...

By Rahul Tongia & Anurag Sehgal (Brookings) The recent Cabinet decision to open up coal mining to commercial miners, who will now have the freedom to sell coal in the open market, is an interesting development. For decades since its nationalisation, the public sector Coal India Limited (CIL) has dominated coal production in India, producing some 82 per cent of Indian domestic...

The global coal mining industry is making many new changes in order to perform more efficiently. This is necessary for coal production companies, as they all enter the modern era of renewable resources and clean energy competition. The landscape for the coal and steel business is changing in all countries, but still remains one of the dominant forces for...

A lack of integration in the world coal market has seen it divided for a number of years into the Atlantic and Pacific regions but there is growing evidence that this is no longer the case. Coal continues to be the predominant fuel for electricity generation worldwide, and a main source for global energy supply. Coal generates today over 41%...

The Clean Power Plan, which led a short but eventful life, was killed by an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday. A few of the Clean Power Plan’s most ardent admirers may insist that it still has life, and in some technical sense they are right—even the administration concedes that...

The energy landscape of the Middle East has undergone a significant transformation in recent years and whilst the transition has uncertain outcomes, one beneficiary might be coal Following attempts by many large coal-consuming countries to substitute the burning of coal with natural gas, global consumption of coal has begun to fall after a long period in which it steadily increased....