China commodity prices tumble after planner mulls coal intervention
BEIJING - China's commodities markets slumped on Wednesday, led by sharp declines in thermal coal prices, after the state planner said it was looking at ways to intervene to cool off record high prices of the fuel.
Cheaper coal prices and its increasing supply could help ease China's factory gate inflation, which hit record highs in September on the back of a power crunch and soaring commodity prices, hurting profits of many mid- and downstream factories.
On Wednesday, thermal coal futures fell from its previous session's record highs, hitting its limit down of 8% at 1 755.40 yuan ($274.71) per tonne.
Coking coal and coke futures opened down 9% to hit daily trading limits as well.
Other energy and base metals prices followed suit, with aluminium and zinc futures slumping by more than 6%. Prices of petrochemicals such as methanol and ethylene glycol, and urea which uses coal as feedstock, fell 8% to 9%.
Comments
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation