A Sharp Rise in International Market Prices For Thermal Coal

 Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, global oil and gas prices have risen significantly due to concerns about disruptions in global oil and gas supply, and there are no signs of the war conflict stopping or easing in the short term.

 On March 6th, the May-delivery London Brent crude oil on the Intercontinental Exchange surged by 12%, approaching $95 per barrel, while the April-delivery WTI crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose even faster, jumping by over 17% during the session and reaching a high of $92 per barrel. By the close of trading that day, both Brent and WTI had broken through the $90 per barrel mark, closing at $92.69 per barrel and $90.90 per barrel respectively, with gains of 8.52% and 12.21%. The cumulative increase in WTI oil prices last week exceeded 35%, while Brent oil prices rose by nearly 28%, approaching the level of severe volatility seen in the early stages of the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict.

 On March 9th, as soon as the futures trading opened, the international oil price immediately broke through $100 per barrel. Brent crude opened with a surge of 20%, reaching $111.04 per barrel, while WTI crude saw a rise of up to 22%. Global natural gas prices have also skyrocketed.

 On March 6th, the closing price of the European natural gas trading benchmark, the Dutch TTF natural gas futures, was 53.385 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), an increase of 67.04% from the closing price of 31.960 euros on the previous Friday (February 27), with a weekly increase of nearly 70%.

 The surge in oil and gas prices has raised concerns about global energy supply, prompting utilities to consider switching fuels from natural gas to coal.ly due to concerns about disruptions in global oil and gas supply, and there are no signs of the war conflict stopping or easing in the short term.