May 17 (Reuters) - European prompt physical coal prices were little changed on Thursday, hovering at around $88.00 a tonne, despite oil's fall to its lowest level since the start of the year, traders said.
The mood in the coal market has become gloomier during the past month, with fewer players optimistic that there will be a demand-driven rise in prices in the second half.
Instead of discussing when DES ARA European prices will recover to over $100 a tonne, there was more talk about how much further they could fall below $88 at this week's McCloskey coal conference in Nice.
"It's all dependent upon macros, and there's not that much hope of improvement in the Euro zone economies or that Asia will take all the surplus coal," one trader said.
China's April and May coal imports will be strong, according to traders tracking vessels, but not strong enough to make a difference to sagging prices.
The most recent Chinese import statistics for March show 0.97 million tonnes of imports of all forms of coal, 20.5 percent lower than February's imports.
PRICES
A July loading South African cargo was bid at $94.00, having traded at $94.10 on Wednesday.
A July DES ARA cargo was offered at $93 - an unrealistically high level, traders said - with no bid against it.
An August DES ARA cargo was bid at $88.25 and offered at $88.85, unchanged. (Reporting by Jacqueline Cowhig, editing by William Hardy)
