Futures of thermal coal shipments out of Australia were above $135 per tonne in April, maintaining most of the surge from March as the outbreak of war in the Middle East triggered shortages in energy commodities, favoring coal alternatives. The war in the Persian Gulf drove Iranian forces to strike tankers carrying liquified natural gas and liquified petroleum gas crossing the Hormuz chokepoint. Supply from the region was further dented as major natural gas processing facilities were hit in Qatar. The developments removed a large portion of feedstock for gas-powered plants in Asia, including Japan and Korea, which are the main consumers of higher grades of Australian thermal coal out of the Newcastle port. Ample appropriate facilities from the two large economies propel gas-to-coal switching for power generation, unlike China and India, which have more steady capacity and usually bid for lower-grade thermal coal.
