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Print[Ferro-Alloys.com] Chinese banks are cutting lending to coal traders and tightening credit terms due to worries about defaults, in a move likely to add more pressure on imports just as demand in the world's top coal consumer has a chance of rebounding ahead of winter.
Problems financing coal deals will make it harder to secure shipments from top producers, such as Australia and Indonesia, and limit any rebound in global prices, which have lost a fifth since the start of the year to under USD90 a tonne.
The market has been hoping for a rebound in Chinese imports and prices in the fourth quarter, when winter consumption typically prompts utilities and trading firms to stock up.
"The banks are really breathing down the necks of some of these coal trading firms," said a European seller who does business with Chinese trading firms.
"Some of them have closed their coal trading business because banks are no longer giving them any letters of credit and are recalling their loans," added the trader, who declined to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
From listed players to smaller coal traders, the tough business conditions are playing out in weaker earnings or losses, and making credit more difficult to obtain.
Trade sources said importers in Guangdong province, where a large proportion of shipments arrive, had already scaled back on imports in part because banks had reduced lending to the firms.
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