MELBOURNE, Australia (Bloomberg) Global Coal Ltd., owner of an on-screen trading system for power-station coal, may introduce a contract for the fuel in Japan in the fourth quarter and is sounding out customers about an agreement for iron ore.
Trials are being conducted on a contract that would include costs for freight and insurance for coal imported into Japan, Patrick Markey, Global Coal's Singapore-based chief operating officer, said Monday in Brisbane, Australia. "That's something that hopefully we'll be able to deliver sometime" in the fourth quarter, he said.
The globalCOAL trading system has three indexes for the fuel, for delivery from Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp, Richards Bay in South Africa and Newcastle in Australia. Global Coal is also developing contracts for coal imported into China and India, and started a business in March targeting iron ore, Markey said.
"The iron ore market is huge and it's going to be a very large undertaking for us," Markey said at the Coaltrans conference. "We recently staffed-up in Singapore to bring in people and resources to actively start developing that and engaging customers. I think the preference is for a delivered price into China."