Lower Supply Expected to Push Up Coal Prices under EU’s Ban on Russia Coal Imports

SHANGHAI, Jul 18 (SMM) – Whitehaven Coal, a leading Australian coal producer, said that the EU's ban on Russian coal is about to take effect soon. Given that the current coal prices are already at a record high, the imminent ban will exert greater pressure on coal supplies and push up the prices further. The tight supply and strong demand around the globe already drove the benchmark price for Asia - thermal coal shipped from the Australian port of Newcastle - to rise to $377/mt in the second quarter, a new record for quarterly prices, Whitehaven Coal said. As of 14:28 July 18, the Newcastle Coal Futures was traded at $410/mt.

Whitehaven Coal suggested in an statement that the EU's ban on Russian coal“is expected to further constrain the supply of high-quality thermal coal", but believed that "the thermal coal prices will stay resilient in 2022-2023." The company also indicated that the coal consumers in northeast Asia are seeking to restock ahead of the summer, and the demand for Australian coal from non-traditional buyers, including those in Europe, is increasing. In fact, the EU had approved an embargo on Russian coal as early as the beginning of April, with a transition period of 120 days designed to give the EU members sufficient time to find alternative coal suppliers. Apart from the EU, the United States and the United Kingdom also announced a ban on Russian coal imports, followed by Japan, the world's third largest coal importer. In particular, the EU is more dependent on the coal imports from the Russia than others. The statistics showed that 45% of the coal imports of the EU came from Russia; among them, Germany imported as high as 50% from Russian coal of its total imported coals. Many countries have started to seek alternatives coal suppliers amid a huge gap between demand and supply. Exxaro, a large South African coal producer, said that the company's current coal production capacity has been booked in advance by many European countries.