Front-year contracts are under pressure from falling gas and carbon prices

German and French power contracts for the year ahead traded lower on Monday as a result of losses in gas and carbon permits.

The German power contract for 2025 has fallen by 1.9%, to 81.40 Euros ($89.41). Meanwhile the French baseload contract for 2025 has contracted by 1%, to 60.90 Euros/MWh.

Dutch and British gas rates fell on Friday morning, and are near their lowest levels since early March. This is due to fears that the global tariff war caused by U.S. duties could reduce industrial activity and curtail gas demand.

The benchmark contract on the European carbon markets fell by 0.9%, to 65.44 Euros per metric ton.

Analysts at ENGIE said that carbon prices dropped rapidly as investors reacted to the US tariffs announced.

The whole economic situation is a negative signal for EU industrial output and the carbon price could continue to fall," they said.

LSEG data shows that the German and French baseload power prices for Monday were not traded by 0922 GMT.

LSEG data indicated that the German wind output is expected to increase by 1.5 gigawatts to 7.4 GW while French output will decrease by 1.8 GW (to 4.5 GW).

The data indicated that the German solar power production was likely to drop by 900MW to 14.6GW.

The French nuclear capacity has increased by three percentage points, to 71%.

LSEG data shows that power consumption in Germany will be down 160 MW on Monday to 54.3 GW, while France's demand is expected to increase 390 MW from 47.4 GW to 47.4 GW. $1 = 0.9104 Euros (Reporting and Editing by David Goodman)

(source: Reuters)