Further to the very good posts above regarding met coal being...

Further to the very good posts above regarding met coal being used in thermal applications, the significant technical issues mean that there is a limited volume of met coal that can switch into the thermal market, possibly 5-10% max of the seaborne met market which equates to 15-30Mt. In the thermal market, 15-30Mt is around 1.5-3% so even if all the potential met coal switched into thermal it would not have a massive impact.

Another reason that will constrain switching is that met coal producers have contracted volume positions with steel (and coke) makers, and if they switch to the thermal market they have to change these contractual positions, which will look silly when met prices inevitably rise above thermal prices again. Customers take a very dim view of that sort of behaviour. It will only be at the margins that producers actually switch coal from met into thermal markets.