The holidays have fueled purchases

Alexander Balyuta (Titov), senior expert at the Energy Department of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to Kommersant on the prospect of rising coal prices in Asia.

The main reason for the price increase now is uncertainty about the volume of Indonesian coal, Alexander Balyuta says. As a result, buyers could not always find available volumes on the spot, which led to an increase in quotations. Probably, the analyst believes, the market will gradually adapt to the Indonesian factor within a few weeks. At the same time, in the coming weeks, Mr. Balyuta continues, the markets of China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan will begin to withdraw during the off-season, which should limit demand growth, but the slow recovery of coal production in China is still supporting prices.