* Oil price dip below $50/barrel bearish for energy markets
* India's July coal imports fall year-on-year
LONDON, Aug 5 (Reuters) - European thermal coal prices eased on Wednesday, as weak demand and lower oil prices weighed on the market.
European cargoes for delivery into Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Antwerp (ARA) in August last closed at $57.40 a tonne, having fallen around 3 percent over the past month.
"At the moment there's no sign of the market picking up," a European trader said.
European API2 2015 coal futures were down 0.25 cents or 0.5 percent at $55.75 a tonne, near a more than nine-year low of $55.25 hit on April 8.
Oil prices LCOc1 dropped below $50 a barrel earlier this week, on growing oversupply and slowing demand from China, pressuring the whole energy complex. O/R
Coal prices' own downward trajectory shows no sign of reversing as a supply glut, combined with expectations that demand from top consumer China will shrink more, paint a bleak outlook for the fossil fuel.
A recovery in coal prices depends on demand from Asia and the oil market strengthening, the trader said.
"The lack of demand from India because of the monsoon makes it difficult to achieve a higher price," said the trader.
India's coal imports fell 11 percent to 19.3 million tonnes in July from a year earlier - the sharpest and the first drop in more than a year - as local supplies rose and money losing power generators held up purchases.
India is the world's third largest importer of thermal coal and until now, the growth in its imports had been helping offset a fall in China's.
In South Africa, prompt cargoes from the Richards Bay terminal last closed at $56.15 a tonne, down around 2 percent from a month ago as weak Indian demand weighed.
South Africa's mines minister has ordered the world's top thermal coal exporter Glencore GLEN.L to suspend all operations at a coal mine because of the way it planned to carry out job cuts.
Mines Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi said on Tuesday the government was suspending operations at the 10 million tonne-a-year mine because Glencore did not follow legal procedure in the process of cutting jobs.
In the U.S., coal producers continued to face financial troubles due to low prices, the shale energy revolution and environmental targets.
Alpha Natural Resources Inc ANRZ.PK , one of the largest U.S. coal companies, became the latest in the hard-hit industry to seek bankruptcy on Monday.
The move comes as President Barack Obama is expected to unveil tough new measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.