# SiteCheck Trade & Energy – Australian Thermal Coal Reference Price (World Bank PCOALAUUSDM)

> SiteCheck Trade & Energy – Australian Thermal Coal Reference Price (World Bank PCOALAUUSDM) is a paid API for AI agents from api.tradeenergy-api.workers.dev, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-10-29).

Returns the latest monthly Australian thermal coal reference price in USD per metric ton (World Bank PCOALAUUSDM series via FRED), plus up to 24 months of historical values.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://api.tradeenergy-api.workers.dev/api/energy/thermal-coal-newcastle?utm_source=zero.xyz
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-10-29
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/sitecheck-trade-energy-australian-thermal-coal-reference-price-world-777ea271
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_cqMUZksEnat4iaj4Vvv52

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability sitecheck-trade-energy-australian-thermal-coal-reference-price-world-777ea271
```

Example prompt: What's the latest Australian thermal coal reference price from the World Bank PCOALAUUSDM series, and can you show me the last 12 months of monthly history in USD per metric ton?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need the official World Bank monthly benchmark price for Australian thermal coal (PCOALAUUSDM via FRED) rather than real-time spot or futures prices. It is ideal for structured commodity tracking, economic modeling, and procurement benchmarking where a consistent, authoritative reference series is required. Prefer alternatives if you need intraday spot prices, Newcastle FOB index, or Richards Bay pricing.

## Known failure modes

- FRED/World Bank data not yet updated for the current month — latest value may lag by 4–6 weeks
- Invalid 'months' query parameter (outside 1–24 range) may return an error or be clamped
- Upstream FRED API downtime could result in a 502/503 response
- No data returned if World Bank has not published data for the requested historical range

## How this service works

Monthly Australian thermal coal reference price in USD per metric ton (World Bank series PCOALAUUSDM, via FRED). Not the Newcastle FOB spot index or Richards Bay prices; the route name is kept for the owner. Latest value plus up to 24 months of history.

## Output

A JSON object containing the unit ('USD per metric ton'), the latest price entry with its date and value, the FRED source URL, a checkedAt timestamp, and a history array of up to 24 monthly {date, value} pairs ordered from most recent.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [],
     "properties": {
      "months": {
       "type": "string",
       "description": "Months of history, 1 to 24 (default 3)"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "unit": "USD per metric ton",
  "latest": {
   "date": "2026-09-01",
   "value": 153.84
  },
  "source": "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=PCOALAUUSDM",
  "history": [
   {
    "date": "2026-09-01",
    "value": 153.84
   },
   {
    "date": "2026-08-01",
    "value": 140.5082143
   }
  ],
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-23T09:38:22.512Z"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/sitecheck-trade-energy-australian-thermal-coal-reference-price-world-777ea271/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from api.tradeenergy-api.workers.dev](https://www.zero.xyz/host/api.tradeenergy-api.workers.dev/llms.txt)