Coking Coal
SGX (Platts FOB Australia)
Metallurgical coal, the high-grade coal baked into coke for blast-furnace steel, scarcer and far dearer than the thermal coal burned for power.
Top Producers
approximate share of seaborne metallurgical coal exports (indicative)
Main Uses
indicative split of metallurgical coal use
Top Exporters
approximate share of seaborne metallurgical coal exports (indicative)
Top Importers
approximate; India is the largest seaborne importer
Use
coke for blast-furnace steelmaking
structural
Top exporter
Australia, over half of seaborne trade
as of 2024
Futures venue
SGX, 100 t/lot, Platts FOB Australia
as of 2026
Price
roughly $190 to $235 per tonne
2024-2025
Coking coal, also called metallurgical coal, is a different commodity from the thermal coal burned in power stations. It is a higher-grade coal that is baked in ovens to make coke, the carbon reductant fed into a blast furnace to make steel. Steelmaking is essentially its only use, it is scarcer than thermal coal, and it trades at a large premium, so the two coals live on separate price curves despite sharing a name.
Australia is the dominant seaborne exporter, supplying more than half of globally traded metallurgical coal, around three times the next-largest exporter, the United States. On the buy side, India has become the largest seaborne importer, with China the largest importer overall, so the trade is essentially Australian mines feeding Asian steel. Prices run far above thermal coal: premium hard coking coal traded roughly 190 to 235 dollars a tonne through 2024 and 2025, after a violent 2022 spike during the energy crisis.
The liquid benchmark is the Singapore Exchange (SGX) coking coal future, 100 tonnes a lot in dollars per tonne, cash-settled against the Platts premium hard coking coal FOB Australia index, with contracts also on CME and a domestic yuan market on Dalian. It lets steelmakers and miners hedge a cost that swings far more than the iron ore beside it.
How It Trades
| Venue | Singapore Exchange (SGX); also CME and Dalian |
| Benchmark contract | SGX coking coal future (Platts Premium HCC FOB Australia index) |
| Contract size | 100 metric tonnes per lot |
| Price terms | US dollars per tonne |
| Settlement | Cash-settled against the Platts FOB Australia index |
| Typical curve | Driven by steel demand, Australian weather and mine outages, and freight |
| Liquidity | SGX is the liquid seaborne benchmark; the contract complements iron ore for steel-margin hedging |
Supply and Demand
Top producers
- Australia: the dominant seaborne metallurgical-coal exporter
- United States: the second-largest seaborne exporter
- China and Russia: large producers, much consumed domestically
- Canada and Mozambique: further exporters
Australia anchors the seaborne trade and the price benchmark. Shares are of seaborne exports.
Top consumers
- India: the largest seaborne importer
- China: the largest importer overall
- Japan, South Korea, and the EU steel industries
Major uses
- Coke for blast-furnace (integrated) steelmaking
- Pulverized coal injection in blast furnaces
What Moves the Price
- Global steel demand, above all blast-furnace output
- Australian weather and mine disruptions (cyclones, flooding)
- Indian and Chinese import demand
- Freight and the Australian dollar
- Substitution toward scrap and electric-arc steelmaking over time
Moments That Made the Market
2010
The decades-old annual benchmark pricing system breaks down toward quarterly and spot pricing.
2022
Coking coal spikes in the energy crisis; thermal coal briefly trades above it.
2020s
India overtakes China as the largest seaborne importer as its steel output grows.
What Changed Since the 2010 Handbook Era
- Pricing moved from annual benchmarks to spot and a liquid SGX future.
- India became the demand-growth engine for seaborne metallurgical coal.
- The long-run threat is scrap-based electric-arc steel, which needs no coke.