MONTHLY: China's thermal coal mart seen repeating history

China's domestic thermal coal market is poised to stay weak in the remaining days of January, mirroring the market conditions experienced this time last year as the now-familiar factor of a warm winter is playing out again.

The domestic coal market showed some fatigue in December. The benchmark 5,500 kcal/kg NAR thermal coal price under Mysteel's assessment had slumped from Yuan 818/tonne ($117.3/t/) on December 1 to Yuan 686/t by December 29, before picking up mildly soon after to end the month at Yuan 688/t. Although December