COAL : Newcastle coal futures, the benchmark for top consuming region Asia, consolidated around the $300-per-tonne mark after the European Union announced a ban on Russian coal imports from August onwards.
Markets were already tight even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine as the energy crisis and soaring natural gas prices in Europe and Asia in late 2021 boosted coal use for power generation.
Coal hit a record high of $430 a tonne in March, as the Ukraine war prompted users to seek alternatives to Russian shipments and as an economic rebound from the pandemic sparked further demand for fossil fuels.
