Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission promulgated the "Notice on Promoting the Signing and Performing of Medium and Long-Term Coal in 2018". The Circular states that signing long-term contracts is not only an important basis for establishing a long-term, stable, honest and efficient cooperative relationship between coal supply and demand parties, but also a concrete manifestation of giving full play to the decisive role played by the market in allocating resources and giving better play to the role of the government.
In fact, under the structural reform of the supply side and the implementation of the coal-to-energy policy, the development of the coal industry has obviously improved in the past two years. As the coal industry dropped sharply throughout the year in 2015, the coal production and operation order Constantly regulate. However, with the sharp increase in market demand and the closure of small coal mines in some areas in the southern part of the country, the coal mines and transportation patterns have undergone significant changes.
According to the circular, the signing of long-term contracts is beneficial to the production organization of enterprises, reducing fluctuations in supply and demand and stabilizing market expectations. It is conducive to optimizing transportation capacity allocation and transportation efficiency, reducing business and social costs, and improving overall economic benefits. It is also conducive to safeguarding coal Stable supply and stable prices, and promote the healthy development of related industries.
The reporter noted that the Circular clearly stipulated the contract volume of medium and long-term contracts for next year. That is, the number of long-term and medium-term contracts signed by the Central Government, provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and other large-scale coal and power generation enterprises of the Central Government should reach their own resources or purchases The amount of more than 75%, railway, port business for medium and long-term contracts in terms of capacity to be given priority and fulfill security.
In the timetable, the "Circular" requires that China Coal Industry Association should complete the 2018 contract summary work by the first ten days of December, and the railway department should complete the allocation of coal transportation capacity across provinces and regions by mid-December. In the absence of the completion of the purchase and sale of the contract within the prescribed time and sign the network system, in principle, no longer retain capacity.
"In 2017, the long-term contract amount of coal-fired electricity enterprises accounts for about 60-70% of the coal resources owned or purchased by some enterprises, slightly more than 70% for some enterprises and 75% for the government in 2018, 80% and above the direction of the efforts, which means that the spot market will be reduced, so the role of fluctuations in spot coal prices will also be weakened. "Cai Min Ling Falconer analyst told reporters.
She believes that from the government level, large and medium-sized coal-fired power companies signed a contract will undoubtedly increase the government's grasp of the coal and power industry, thus contributing to better monitoring of relevant departments to regulate coal prices. However, the long-term contract pricing mechanism is still the key to the current coal game.
In response, the Circular requires that the price mechanism of long-term contracts for coal be further consummated, including the contract pricing mechanism for seaborne coal, the pricing mechanism for direct railway contracts and the contract pricing mechanism in the region.
Take the railway direct pricing mechanism of coal contracts as an example, both sides of direct railroad supply and demand of coal should negotiate the contract price according to the "benchmark price + floating price" mechanism. If both parties can not reach an agreement, the opinion should be based on the following opinions: the benchmark price shall be determined from the average price of the benchmark coal mine after deducting transportation charges and the 2017 average monthly transaction price between the two parties, with each of the two types of price weights accounting for 50% .
Among them, the floating price can be combined with Bohai Rim Coal Price Index, CCTD Qinhuangdao Port Coal Price Index, China's coastal coal procurement price index comprehensively determined.
"The signing of medium-and long-term contracts is good for both coal and coal, which is equivalent to locking each other's big customers, but the power plant hopes the lower the price, the better coal companies hope that the higher prices, both sides hold positions." Cai Minling said.
A coal industry practitioners told reporters that in order to further promote the long-term contracts of coal, it is recommended to further clarify joint disciplinary measures to develop a unified coal long-term contract signing and performance assessment methods; the same time, measures should be taken to resolve the inter-departmental because of the policy is not Convergence, not supporting, affecting the long-term contracts and the performance of coal contracts issue.
