South African Thermal Coal Price, Richards Bay (Monthly)

## What this measures

The monthly average price of thermal coal f.o.b. Richards Bay, 6,000 kcal/kg NAR, in US dollars per metric ton. It comes from the World Bank's Commodity Price Data (the Pink Sheet), which runs from 1960 or the series' first year. Each point is dated the first of its month.

## Why it matters

Richards Bay coal supplies India, Pakistan and Europe, so it is the Atlantic and Indian Ocean read on power-station fuel costs.

## How to read it

Higher means the commodity costs more. Prices are in nominal US dollars, not adjusted for inflation, so compare with the series' own history and with the change from a year earlier. Each point is a monthly average, so it is smoother than daily quotes and trails fast moves by a few weeks.

## What it does not say

It is one benchmark grade at one delivery point, not what every buyer pays: local prices add freight, duties and currency moves. The latest months can be World Bank estimates that are replaced when source data arrive. Palanor does not fill or smooth any month.

## Source

World Bank, Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), monthly prices in nominal US dollars, file CMO-Historical-Data-Monthly.xlsx from worldbank.org/en/research/commodity-markets. Licensed CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Data Catalog, dataset 0038238, "Commodity Prices - History and Projections"). Attribution: Source: World Bank Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet). The World Bank compiles the monthly averages from third-party quotations it names for each series (exchanges, industry bodies and data vendors). Not endorsed by the World Bank. Refreshed daily by /api/cron/commodity-prices-sync; the World Bank updates the file on the second business day of each month.