Causality-in-mean and causality-in-variance within the international steam coal market

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the integration of the steam coal market. The analysis of dependencies between mean rates of return of prices on the steam coal market and volatility spillover was conducted using weekly data from the period 04.01.2002 to 30.12.2011. The prices of the world's largest exporters and importers on the Pacific and Atlantic markets were chosen to analyse the dependencies. The methodology was based on the tests from Cheung and Ng (1996) and Hong (2001), which allow for the analysis of Granger causality both in mean and in variance. The analyses indicate that the dependence between participants is not the same. The strongest links were observed between the pairs of participants from the same market (that is, either the Atlantic market or the Pacific market), and the price of Australian coal turned out to be the most important factor in shaping other prices on the Pacific market. On the Atlantic market, the coal prices in the Amsterdam–Rotterdam–Antwerp (ARA) ports and the Richards Bay port had the greatest influence on coal prices and were the Granger cause of prices in the Pacific region.