NDRC Updated Signing Principles of Long-Term Agreement on Coal Trade, Benchmark Price of Coal Carried on Ships Up 31%

SHANGHAI, Dec 3 – On December 3, the National Coal Trade Conference announced the draft of the long-term contract signing of coal trade for 2022 for comments.

The draft was formulated by the National Development and Reform Commission, which clarified that the scope of enterprises that can sign the long-term coal trading agreement in 2022 will be further expanded. In principle, coal production enterprises with an approved capacity of 300,000 mt and above will be included in the scope.

On the demand side, the power generation and heating companies are required to sign the long-term agreements for all the coal they will use except for the imported coal.

In terms of prices, the "base price + floating price" pricing mechanism remains unchanged, but the draft suggests that the prices of long-term trading should be adjusted monthly.

The price range of the thermal coal with 5,500 calories is 550-850 yuan/mt, and the benchmark price of the coal carried on ships in long-term trading is 700 yuan/mt, up about 31% from the previous 535 yuan/mt.