China's portside thermal coal market eased following more than a week of sideways movement, with offers softening as traders looked to take profit in the wake of sluggish demand and rising inventories.

Sluggish demand left buyers reluctant to accept high-priced cargoes, while rising port inventories increased pressure on traders to secure buyers. Coal stocks at Qinhuangdao, Caofeidian, Jingtang, and Huanghua ports reached 26.06 million tonnes on November 24, rising 4.9% on the week and 8.7% on the month.

Meanwhile, rail inflows hovered at high levels. Daqin line's daily shipments were close to full capacity of about 1.3 million tonnes over November 22-23, Sxcoal data showed. However, vessels in anchorage and expected to arrive increased over the weekend, though it remains moderate overall.

Sellers largely offered index-linked prices, with some cargoes drifting lower to 3-6 yuan/t below the CCI index. Several traders, who planned to accelerate shipments to reduce exposure to a potential decline, estimated a possible correction of 10-20 yuan/t in total, citing slow utility buying and thin trading liquidity.

"Some miners attempted to push for another round of price increases last week, but dampened by a sustained standoff at the portside market," said a Hebei-based trader source. "A leading miner's 3-5 yuan/t downward adjustments for its buy prices of third-party coal from production areas from November 23 added another layer of bearishness."

One Shanxi-based seller source offered 1%-sulfur 5,000 Kcal/kg NAR coal at 720 yuan/t FOB northern ports with VAT, but met with a lack of buyers. Some offers of Shanxi 0.8%-sulfur same-CV coal slightly eased to 733-735 yuan/t, impacted by sustained tepid demand from power plants, while sporadic procurement from chemical plants failed to offer any significant support.

Cargoes offered at discounted levels were mainly purchased earlier at lower prices, sources told Sxcoal, and newly procured supplies remained firm as they carried higher costs.

While prices may edge lower in the short term, sources widely expected the downside room to be capped by colder weather, which could boost power plant coal burn.

Import sentiment weakens

China's seaborne coal import market saw a retreat in sentiment, alongside eased bidding prices to utility tenders following several cancellations last week.

Traders' bidding prices for Indonesian 3,800 Kcal/kg NAR coal dipped below 480 yuan/t CFR China with VAT, while offers of 3,400 Kcal/kg NAR coal trended obviously lower compared to the week-ago levels.

"Utilities are inviting for bids, but have remained reluctant to lock in cargoes at present prices," said a Guangdong-based trader source. "Counting on stocks owned by utilities at ports, the actual available days of inventory coverage at power plants are actually higher than we expected, so they are not in a rush to build stocks."

Several sources warned about potentially concentrated profit-taking attempts later, if traders' selling pressure further builds.

Offers of Indonesian 3,800 Kcal/kg NAR coal were at around $52/t FOB. Mid-CV grades received limited inquiries.

For high-CV coal, sources said that costs of some December-delivering Australian 5,500 Kcal/kg NAR cargoes neared 840 yuan/t CFR China with VAT. They were hesitated to sell and expected a possible near-term catch-up increase in the index.