March 10, 2020 - A major Japanese steelmaker settled its January-March contracts for benchmark Australia Low Vol pulverized coal injection (PCI) at $110.00/mt FOB Australia Monday, and benchmark Australia semi-soft product at $103.70/mt FOB Australia Thursday, market participants told S&P Global Platts Monday.

The steelmaker could not be reached for confirmation.

The provisional price for the first quarter was $108.00/mt FOB Australia for Low Vol PCI and around $101.00/mt FOB Australia for semi-soft, sources said.

Over the December-February period, the benchmark Platts Premium Low Vol FOB Australia averaged $147.49/mt FOB Australia, up $4.90/mt FOB Australia from the September-November period. This puts the January-March PCI settlement price at 74.50% of premium hard coking coal prices, and 70.30% of semi soft prices.

Another major Japanese steelmaker settled its January-March 2020 contracts in December for Australia Low Vol PCI at around $107.00/mt FOB Australia and for Australia semi-soft at around $100.00/mt FOB Australia, market participants said. The steelmaker could not be reached for confirmation. The same steelmaker is expected to begin its April-June contracts at the end of March.

Platts on Monday assessed Premium Low Vol at $159.00/mt FOB Australia, Low Vol PCI at $101.50/mt FOB Australia and semi soft at $83.75/mt FOB Australia.