Energy Talking Points 23-09-2015

Energy

Date: Wednesday, 23rd September 2015

 

China still top global spot metallurgical coal buyer (English)

Source: platts.com, 15 September 2015

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China remained the largest spot buyer and clearing market for met coal, accounting for 75% of the global spot volume of 33.1 million MT, in H1 2015. China’s share of the global premium coal spot trade volume slipped to 62% in H1 2015, compared with 82% in the same period last year. Additionally, Australia exported 14.9 million MT of met coal to Europe and South America in H1 2015, up 18% from the same period a year ago.

 

China would establish its own crude oil futures market (Chinese)

Source: ce.cn, 21 September 2015

Analysts believe that China crude oil futures are likely to be on the market soon, even as soon as November 2015. They stated that this move would be significantly meaningful in both the global market and monetary system. Considering the great deal of oil consumption in China (0.6 billion tons), the most important aspect is to change the current pricing mechanism (decided by NDRC), instead of introducing foreign investors.

 

IEA calls out industry mistakes on Asian demand (English)

Source: newsbase.com, 17 September 2015

According to the head of IEA, the idea that Asian consumers would take LNG “at any price” is a grave mistake, due to cheap coal and increasingly competitive renewables.  For instance, in India, gas has lost market share to coal over the last three years, while Indian coal-fired has grown by 25% over the same period. Cost pressure from alternative sources, combined with inefficient LNG markets, has made the golden age of LNG more of a dream than that of reality.

 

Oil continues volatile trading (English)

Source:  upstream, 22 September 2015

Oil markets have seesawed since the beginning of the week, torn between data that points towards a bottoming out of prices following an over 50% fall over the last year, and bearish analysts who see more price falls as oversupply lingers. This has seen several intuitions, including Goldman Sachs and ANZ, revise their price forecasts downward this month, arguing that it will take until at least 2016 or 2017 to remove a huge overhang that has been built up over the last few years by soaring production, just as demand slows.

 

This brief summarises a range of publicly available news articles in both Chinese and    English and AustCham takes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information in these articles. In addition, the views and opinions reflected in these articles are not necessarily representative of AustCham.

 

For more details on how to get involved in the AustCham Beijing Energy Working Group, please contact Andrew Britz.

 

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