Coal stocks sink on lower Asian imports, Macquarie outlook
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The news: Australia's coal miners are among the worst performing companies across the ASX 200 after new data showed that Asia's coking coal imports lowered in February and Macquarie cut its price forecasts for the commodity.
The numbers: Coal producers Yancoal (-12.1%), New Hope (-7.8%), Whitehaven (-5.4%) and Coronado Global Resources (-4.6%) made up four of the five worst performing ASX 200 stocks at 2:45pm AEDT.
Yancoal was also trading ex-dividend.
The selloff followed new data by commodity analysts Kpler that showed Asia's seaborne imports of metallurgical coal, also called coking coal, dropped to the lowest in three years last month.
The imports fell to 15.85 million metric tons in February, down from 20.42 million in January, the lowest level since February 2022, Reuters reported. The world's top buyer, India, saw imports drop from 6.26 million to 4.56 million month on month, the weakest showing since December 2021.
The context: Elsewhere, Macquarie cut its coal prices forecasts due to softer demand and modest supply growth from Russia and Mongolia, the Financial Review reported.
It also downgraded Whitehaven and New Hope to 'neutral', and Coronado to 'underperform'.
