High prices to last a while yet- COAL

Washington DC (Platts)--19Oct2004

Several speakers at Coaltrans Barcelona Tuesday more or less agreed global
coal supply is meeting or somewhat exceeding demand, yet no-one foresaw a
near-term prospective decline in global coal prices.

Daniel Walton, vice president of Hill and Associates, said suppliers'
discipline would prevent any price collapse.
 
Francisco Santoro, director of purchasing at Carboex, said that buyers are
suffering now and cannot long sustain the current historically high prices.
Nonetheless, he too argued that coal prices were unlikely to fall
precipitously. "For too long prices were too low. They had to go up," he said.

Total's Diego de Bourgues, said that although he sees a slight over supply
situation globally, it is not sufficient to push prices down and he predicted
2005 would remain tight without any substantial price change.

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