The two assessments, reflecting hard coking coal loading in Australia for any destination and delivered into China from any potential source, complement both Platts’ existing monthly coking coal assessments published in International Coal Report and Platts’ IODEX iron ore assessments published in Steel Markets Daily, providing greater transparency into pricing in the steelmaking supply chain in the Asia-Pacific region. Coke, made in ovens from coking coal, provides the heat and combustion that is required in steel mill blast furnaces.
“These new assessments, along with a dry bulk freight price from Australia to China, allow us to deepen our analysis of blast furnace economics, particularly those in China,” said Platts Global Director of Steel Francis Browne. “It’s our hope the price transparency provided by Platts for this vital steel making ingredient will meet the global industry’s need for comparative valuations of coking and other metallurgical coals.”
Platts’ Hard Coking Coal FOB Australia and Hard Coking Coal CFR China assessments will capture the value in U.S. dollars per dry metric ton ($/dmt) of hard coking coal loading free on board (FOB) in key Queensland, Australia, ports and cargoes delivered on a cost and freight (CFR) basis to main Chinese ports.
Platts will also launch a daily dry bulk freight assessment representing the cost of freight for cargoes carried on Panamax class vessels from Australia to China as a normalization guide in the coking coal price assessment process. All three assessments will be published in Steel Markets Daily, Coal Trader International, International Coal Report, and on the real-time service Platts’ Metals Alert.
“The addition of daily metallurgical coking coal assessments for Australia and China adds further clarity and transparency to this growing market,” said Platts International Coal Managing Editor James O’Connell. “These assessments also introduce a rigorous evaluation of differing but commonly-used qualities of metallurgical coal in order to be inclusive of more market activity and reflect a common transactional basis.” Both of the new hard coking coal assessments reflect quality of 64% minimum coke strength after reduction, 9% maximum air dried ash, and 25.5% maximum air dried volatile matter, with recognized “premium” hard and hard coking coals of differing quality normalized to the Platts quality and specification guidelines as outlined in its methodology. Updated methodology documents will be available at www.platts.com.
