EUAs fell near 50€/t on profit taking

The power spot prices remained steady at 88.30€/MWh on average in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands (+0.60€/MWh day-on-day) amid expectations of mostly unchanged fundamentals for today.

The EUAs fell by 1.35€/t (-2.6%) on Thursday in a sharp downward move mainly attributed to traders taking profits ahead of the summer holidays and technical pressure with the Dec.21 contract breaking below some technical resistance. Some market participants also mentioned a potential bearish pressure from compliance operators disappointed by last week’s publication of the legislative proposals to revise the market selling EUAs to raise cash despite the lingering long-term bullish view of the carbon prices. The EUA bellwether contract hit as low as 50.05€/t but with a last minute rebound managed to settle at 50.79€/t.

Despite slight gains in the gas market, the power prices fell alongside the EUAs and posted moderate losses along the curve.

Meanwhile, EEX published the EUA and EUAA auction calendar for 2022 and an updated 2021 calendar taking into account the 126.3m EUAs withheld by the MSR from September to December following the TNAC publication mid-May. 177m EUAs will be auctioned over the last four month of 2021, a significant 41% decrease from the same period of the last year. 601m EUAs are for scheduled to be auctioned in 2022, although the volumes presented for the period from September to December are only preliminary and expected to be corrected in May in accordance with the TNAC publication if the market’s surplus exceeds once again the 833mt threshold.