DAILY: China's short pithead supply boosts thermal coal buying

China's pithead thermal coal market turned into a seller's market on August 28, with many producers lifting quotes by Yuan 10-30/tonne ($1.5-4.5/t) as heavy rains idled open-pit mines and end-month maintenance squeezed supply, market sources said.

The shortage was most visible in Ordos, North China's Inner Mongolia, where miners cited both weather disruptions and early quota exhaustion – most had already filled their monthly targets days before month-end. Meanwhile, both traders and utilities stepped up their procurement from mines, with long truck queues forming at pithead