Prices soar for PCI and coking coal

For coking coal the market had expected $US180 a tonne, but it came in at $US200 a tonne, as recently confirmed by BHP Billiton.

And as BHP managed to do in its settlement on coking coal, Asia's steelmakers have agreed to the prices on a quarterly basis rather than on the annual benchmark pricing mechanism BHP has been trying to get rid of for all steelmaking raw materials - iron coal, coking coal, pulverised coal injection coal and manganese.

Quarterly contract prices for BHP's top quality pulverised coal injection coalfrom the South Walker Creek mine in Queensland's Bowen Basin were settled at$US180 a tonne. Canadian producers agreed to $US170 a tonne.

Last year's contract price for pulverised coal injection coal was about 75 per cent of the coking coal price. Now it is about 85 per cent.

Lower-cost pulverised coal injection coal can replace coke in blast furnaces and it has been the fastest growing segment of the seabornecoal trade.