Transportation bottlenecks in Australia have restricted supplies of power station coal, helping to boost prices from the port in New South Wales State.
The weekly index of thermal coal prices at Newcastle port gained USD 7.74 to USD 163.90 a ton in the week ended August 15th 2008, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index. Prior to that, the measure had dropped 20% from a record USD 194.79 a tonne reached in the week ended July 4.
Banking Group Ltd in a report said that contract prices may rise a further 24% next year to USD 155 a ton on continuing supply constraints and rising demand from Asia, Australia and New Zealand
Mr Mark Pervan senior commodity analyst at ANZ in Melbourne said that “We believe the thermal coal market fundamentals could get stronger, with constrained supply conditions in Australia and South Africa met by booming demand in Asia.”
