October look-alike traded at $62/st, $1/st higher than Wednesday's trading level, while calendar year 2011 look-alike traded at $67.75/st, 75 cents/st higher than prior session prices.
Sources attributed strength in look-alike, Powder River Basin and CSX rail-delivered coal markets to gains by natural gas futures, along with internal dynamics. One said that OTC turnover is now nearly exclusively being "driven by large traders," with utility players on the sidelines.
The same source said Thursday saw large traders narrow the spread between CY 2011 and CY 2012 look-alike and the differential between CSX and look-alike from $5/st two weeks ago to $3.75/st.
Trading volumes remained spread across the forward curve in the look-alike market. October traded just the once at $62/st for five barges Thursday having been assessed by Platts at $61.50/st at the end of Wednesday's action and trading at $61/st earlier in that session.
December traded at $64.50/st for five barges, $1.50/st higher than prices seen in Wednesday's trading.
Q1 2011 traded outright at $65/st for five barges twice, $64.90/st for five barges and $65.25/st for five barges twice. The contract traded in a spread over Q4 2011 at a discount of $5.75/st for five barges. Thursday's prices were ahead of trades seen on Wednesday at $64.30/st and Platts' assessment of $64.20/st.
Two trades were recorded in Q2 2011 at $66.50/st for five barges and $66.75/st for five barges. Wednesday's Platts Q2 assessment stood at $66.25/st, with trades seen between $66.25/st and $66.35/st.
Q3 2011 traded at $69/st for five barges twice, while Q4 2011 traded at $70.75/st for five barges.
CY 2011 traded outright at $67.75/st for five barges, and in a spread deal over CY 2012 at a discount of $7/st for five barges. Q4 2012 traded once at $76.75/st for five barges.
In other physical trades, October CSX-delivered 12,500-Btu/lb, -1% sulfur traded at $68.50/st for the delivery of one train. This was 50 cents ahead of Platts' Wednesday assessment, but down 50 cents from trades seen on Tuesday.
October PRB 8,800-Btu/lb physical traded outright at $15/st for the delivery of one train, 5 cents higher than the prior Platts assessment, and down 5 cents from similar term trades on Tuesday. PRB 8,800 physical also traded in a spread of October over November at a premium of 15 cents.
In the paper market, CSX swaps hogged the attention. CSX derivatives in the Q1 2011 contract traded at $69.15/st for 10,000 st and for 5,000 st, and at $69.50/st for 5,000 st. Q1 was also reported in an unconfirmed trade of $69.10/st. CSX Q1 swaps traded once in a spread over Q1 look-alike at a
discount of $3.75/st. Q2 2011 CSX swaps traded once at $70/st for 5,000 st.
China Chemical Weekly: http://news.chemnet.com/en/detail-1411716.html
