Metallurgical Coal is Red Hot

From Business Week,

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- JFE Holdings Inc., Japan’s second- largest steelmaker, and two rivals agreed to a 12.5 percent price increase for coking coal contracts with BHP Billiton Ltd., three people with knowledge of the agreements said.
Prices for the steelmaking ingredient will rise to $225 a metric ton for the July quarter, from $200 a ton for the three months started April 1,...........

Coking coal will be in tight supply globally this year as imports by China, where domestic production can’t meet demand, may reach the second-highest on record, Citigroup Inc. said April 22. Prices may reach $300 a ton in the second half, equaling a record set in 2008, the bank said in the same month.

“The price rise for BHP Billiton is in line with our expectations,” Lyndon Fagan, a Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc analyst, said by phone in Sydney. “Coking coal is looking like one of the strongest commodity markets.”

From Forexyard

Nippon Steel Corp, the world's No. 2 steelmaker, will likely seek to increase steel prices by an average 25,000 yen in July-September to pass on the rise in costs, the Mainichi newspaper reported.


Nippon Steel will aim to lift prices to 100,000 yen a tonne in talks with automakers and other with automakers and other customers, the paper said, adding that it was in late-stage negotiations for April-June to raise prices by 15,000 yen per tonne to about 90,000 yen

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