Coal's Answer to Decade-Low Prices Is Even Lower Prices
- Benchmark coking coal for 4Q settled at lowest since 2005
- Some 60 percent of seaborne supply remains profitable
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Coking coal is testing one of the basics of Econ 101: that low prices are the cure for low prices.
The global metallurgical coal benchmark for the fourth quarter settled last week at $89 a metric ton, down 4.3 percent from the previous period to the lowest level since March 2005, according to Doyle Trading Consultants, a Grand Junction, Colorado-based industry analyst.