LAHORE: The coal prices have further decreased by 12 per cent to $52 per tonne in August as compared to $59 per tonne in June 2015.
Low demand from China and US along with rising capacities in other countries has led to the 19 per cent decline in the international market during the last two years.
Going forward, coal prices are likely to remain weak in short term as EIA expects US demand to remain depressed. However, potential demand from South Asian countries might take prices up in longer term.
Cement producers have remained the major beneficiaries of continued fall in coal prices in FY14 and FY15. Recent drop in prices is likely to bring more joys to the cement makers as it would expand margins by 2pps in FY16, experts said.
They said that during the month of August 2015, cement despatches rose by 10.24 percent despite a decline of over 31 percent in exports as the domestic uptake continued to rise in view of accelerated economic activities.
