Share price by Christmas time?, page-7

Mr Bishop said high grade thermal coal traded through the Port of Newcastle was fetching about $US160 a tonne in September – or about $250 in Australian dollars. While the New Hope boss said he did not expect the market to return to record pricing levels seen in 2022, he said the company was seeing the signs of a tightening market ahead of the northern hemisphere winter.

“They had a mild winter last year, and procurement departments probably won’t be thinking they’ll be lucky again to have another mild winter – so I think there will be a bit of stock building coming in around October and November,” he said.

“When you look at the forward pricing it is indicating that prices are expected to increase somewhat.

“I think the market will tighten over the next few months and we should see a bit of a creep up. It also depends on what happens with gas as well. There have been a few blips in gas – like the recent industrial relations incidents – and that gets to a point where there are probably a couple of million tonnes which can pivot between gas and coal.”