Next up: The coal crash

Tuesday, 14 September 2021

It’s been a wild few months for coal. We’ve gone from wallowing prices to record highs in the blink of an eye. But there are signs it’s coming to an end.

Coking coal has been the craziest. As Chinese steel output has collapsed, coking coal has gone through the roof. This was always pretty stupid. Here are Dalian futures:

This was largely driven by two factors which are now resolving. China’s top coal producing state, Shanxi, closed its borders for COVID then shut lots of mines owing to an accident.

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:

$24.99 / month

$249 / year

Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.