Following a rise in December 2015, the January average of TSI’s daily Premium Hard Coking Coal (PHCC) benchmark price for Australian exports fell to $US76.85/tonne.

The index declined by $0.60/t to $76.90/t during the first week of January. However, in the second week, the price hovered around $77.00/t as demand remained stable.

This was not to last, as PHCC prices then fell sharply with each following week, losing $1.60/t to end the month at $75.90/t.

There has been a recent increase in demand for lower-priced, low-ash material from China, which helped push TSI’s FOB Australia Hard Coking Coal price 1.37% higher in January, the latest TSI Monthly Coal Review states.

TSI Platts Met Coal Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) tracker has been reasonably flat recently, coming off the peaks seen in the beginning of the year. The TSI PHCC 30-day tracker stood at –1.87% on January 29.