LONDON: Prompt coal prices were barely changed on Thursday in a range between $83-$89 with little likelihood of breaking out.
Prices have been rangebound for several weeks while players waited for supply cuts to take effect and for spot buying to pick up in India and elsewhere in Asia.
Several trades were reported in the morning at prices a few cents higher than the previous day when swaps fell and narrowed the gap between swaps and physical prices but these deals were between two or three players and do not indicate sudden rise in buying interest generally.
After the premium of swaps over physical prices widened again in the afternoon, no further trades were seen.
Now that December cargoes can be included in the 90-day pricing window used by setters of benchmark indexes, the market's contango is helping inflate prices slightly because the indexes take an average of the whole pricing period.
The market remains burdened by apathy and uncertainty over when prices will start to creep higher.
"A modicum of production discipline has underpinned price levels but a lift in demand remains the key to price recovery prospects," Credit Suisse said on Thursday in a commodities research note.
"Even a modest run-up in prices we fear would be sufficient to unwind recent supply cuts fairly quickly," the note said. TRADES
A December loading South African cargo traded at $87.75 a tonne, down around $1.50 from Wednesday's offer levels.
A November loading South African cargo traded at $86.25 a tonne, down 75 cents.
A December delivery DES ARA cargo traded at $89.70 a tonne, unchanged.
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