European Physical Prices Edge Up, Australia Flat

European physical thermal coal prices inched up on Thursday afternoon amid low volume, while Australian prices were flat.

In the European market, cargoes for delivery in January to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp (ARA) were 5 cents higher at $74.85 a tonne on the Globalcoal trading platform at 1505 GMT. Volume was low at 50,000 tonnes traded.

Oversupply continues to plague global coal markets, and a couple of producers have announced supply cuts over the past week.

However, on Thursday, India's coal secretary said the country will allow locally registered foreign firms to mine and sell coal when commercial mining is permitted as part of the opening up of the nationalised industry after four decades.

The decision will open the door to global giants like Rio Tinto (RTNTF) and BHP Billiton (BHPLF) and help ramp up output from India's huge reserves -- the world's fifth biggest.

China, meanwhile, is aiming to keep total primary energy consumption within 4.8 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent (TCE) by 2020, up from 3.7 billion TCE in 2013.

While primary energy use is set to increase by nearly a third over by 2020, China aims to cap coal consumption at 4.2 billion tonnes, up just 10.5 percent from last year.

If the coal target is met, it is bearish for coal producers outside of China aiming to export to the world's biggest user of the fuel.

In the Australian market, cargoes for delivery in February from the country's Newcastle terminal were flat at $64.50 a tonne.

South African cargoes from the Richards Bay terminal had not traded on Globalcoal at the time of writing.

European coal futures for year-ahead delivery were down 20 cents at $72.20 a tonne.

(Reporting by Nina Chestney, editing by Keith Weir)