Noble shuts London coal trading desk: sources

MADRID - Noble Group, one of the biggest physical coal traders, shut its London coal trading desk and will focus on growing its coal business out of Asia, sources close to the company said.

Several Noble physical and coal swaps traders have left the firm as a result.

'Noble is primarily an Asia-based business for coal so it makes sense to grow the business there, where all the future demand growth and a lot of new production is going to come from,' one former Noble trader said.

In May, Noble executive vice-president Neil Dhar forecast Chinese coal import demand will rise to 200 million tonnes by 2015.

Noble was one of the first traders to develop a sizeable Pacific region coal business alongside Glencore. -- REUTERS