The price for hard coking coal in the June and September quarters is lower than what premium Newcastle-exported thermal coal fetched during the recent boom time years.

The $120/t settlements also represent a four-year low and a 16% fall from the March quarter price of $143/t between the Japanese steelmaker and Anglo.

In a note to clients, which was picked up by Bloomberg, MS analysts said the deal indicated that the market thought the price had likely bottomed as supply and demand approached “better balance”.

But MS is still reportedly expecting about 19 million tonnes of global hard coking coal supplies to be cut this year due to the low prices.