Barge-delivered Central Appalachian coal for Cal 2014 fell 60 cents/st Tuesday as the contract was seen trading down through the session.
Platts assessed the Cal 2014 price at $55.75/st, the lowest level for a front-year contract since December 24, 2009, when the price was assessed at $53.50/st. The contract was seen trading eight times in the session for a total of 50 barges/month, trading as high as $56.50/st before falling as low as $55.70/st.
The price is down $2.70/st over the last seven session, as bearish natural gas data weighed on prices.
On Friday, the Energy Information Administration released its monthly natural gas production data for June, with the Lower 48 states producing 73.62 Bcf/d, up 0.1% from the previous month. Notably, "Other States" had the largest sequential volume increase at 2% of 0.51 Bcf/day, as operators reported new wells in the Marcellus Shale, according to the EIA.
On Tuesday, research firm Stifel Nicolaus said that Marcellus growth is the only reason why gas production is not showing declines and this is why investors should focus on high-quality Marcellus names that are growing production for gas exposure.
Separately, RBC Capital Markets said, "Our model indicates that dry gas production should remain fairly steady for the next couple of quarters. The impact from the Marcellus coupled with associated gas has more than offset base declines in other areas during the last year."
ATLANTIC PRICES FOR SEPTEMBER TRADE DOWN
In the Atlantic export market, globalCOAL carried out a DES Amsterdam-Rotterdam October multi-origin (excluding US) 50,000 mt deal at $77/mt.
Separately, a September 50,000 mt cargo was done through London Commodity Brokers at $74.50/mt, 70 cents below Monday's trade.
US East Coast thermal coal (6,500 kcal/kg NAR 1% sulfur) was assessed up 65 cents to $73/mt, boosted by declining seaborne Panamax freight rates.
