Washington (Platts)--18Feb2011/509 am EST/1009 GMT
Central Appalachian coal prices, particularly at the front end of the curve, continued to fall Thursday. Extra impetus to the downward trend was provided in the morning session when a smaller-than-expected draw from US natural gas stocks in the week that ended February 11 sapped at the strength of nearby NYMEX gas prices. March CAPP barge traded at $68/st, some $1.50/st lower than Wednesday's Platts assessment. Near quarter prices also fell, ending the session down $1.25/st compared with a day earlier at $68.50/st. Q2 2011 CAPP barge traded at $68.50/st for five barges, $69/st for five barges, and $68.75/st for five barges. Further along the curve, Q4 2011 CAPP barge traded at $75/st for five barges twice and $75.20/st for five barges. Q1 2012 traded at $77.75/st for five barges and CY 2013 traded at $88.75/st for five barges. Four CAPP barge spread trades were reported as well, with all four spreads for Q2 2011 over Q3 2011. The discounts were -$3.25 for five barges, -$3.30 for five barges, -$3.30 for ten barges, and -$3.20 for five barges. Powder River Basin coal prices also suffered some losses despite a quiet trading session. The most notable casualty was CY 2012 PRB 8,800-Btu/lb, which fell 35 cents to $15.05/st. --Charlie Noh, chang_noh@platts.comSimilar stories appear in Coal Outlook. See more information at http://bit.ly/CoalOutlook