Coal price cut forced in Japan

Press, 27 February 1986, Page 4

Coal price cut forced in Japan

NZJN Tokyo Japanese steel mills have forced a price cut of about 6 per cent on New Zealand coking coal from Buller, bringing the pertonne price down from around SUSS3 to SUSSO. Ministry of Energy coal negotiators, however, led by Mr John Smith, won agreement from Japanese importers to keep the 1986 volume up to the level shipped in 1985.

Basic contract volumes for the two main Japanese importers, Mitsubishi Chemical Company and

Mitsui Mining Company stay unchanged at 80,000 tonnes each, with a buyer’s option of 20,000 tonnes each.

Spot coal sales to these and other Japanese buyers are likely to push this year’s West Coast coal exports to Japan to about 350,000 tonnes. New Zealand shipped 366,000 tonnes of coal to Japan in the 11 months to November, 1985.

In trade talks ended at the week-end, no agreement was reached for the export of Greymouth thermal or steaming coal.

New Zealand declined to accept low Japanese prices for steaming coal. New Zealand accepted the lower coking coal price to compensate Japanese steel mills for taking 1985 shipments with a higher-than-speci-fied moisture content in Buller coal.

Coal industry sources said, however, that the price cut was not as high as that for comparable Australian coking coal, cut about SUS3.SO for shipments in the year to March 31, 1987. * —NZJN Copyright