This is 3% lower than the $116.6/t free-on-board Australian average hard coking coal price of last year – a figure courtesy of data compiled by Bloomberg.

Posco is expecting a profitable year due to lower commodity prices and growing overall steel demand, with stronger Indian and European market demand tipped to overcome the slowdown in the Chinese market.

The existing March quarter benchmark is $117/t for premium hard coking coal, which is down slightly from the $119/t benchmark for the December quarter.

The Queensland Resources Council recently noted that about half of Queensland’s coal production was lossmaking.