* Oil price plunge puts deflationary pressure on coal - analysts
* Slowing economies, mild winters also dent demand
* All physical coal benchmarks at or below $50/mt
* API2 coal futures at levels last seen in 2003
By Henning Gloystein
SINGAPORE, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Benchmark thermal coal prices for prompt delivery have all fallen to or below $50 per tonne for the first time since before the global financial crisis of 2008/2009 as industrial demand and a mild winter in the northern hemisphere dent consumption.
Prices are further weighed by the plunge in oil, which analysts say is having a deflationary effect on the entire commodity sector.
"Oil has been leading everything lower. Moreover, the lagged deflationary pressure will push industry cost structures for other commodities even lower," Macquarie said this week.
In one of its steepest falls on record, oil prices LCOc1 have fallen by over a quarter since the beginning of the year, and by over 75 percent in 18 months as producers around the world pump 1-2 million barrels of crude every day in excess of demand. O/R
The lifting of western sanctions against oil-rich Iran has further accelerated the downturn.
In coal, the weakest of the main physical prices were European cargoes for delivery into Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Antwerp (ARA), last closing at $44.40 a tonne, down 10 percent since early January and well below 2008/2009 levels.
"The short-term prospects for the coal burn are bearish as we expect significantly warmer temperatures in Northwest Europe over the next 10-15 days," said brokerage Marex Spectron, adding that "macroeconomic conditions do not offer any support in the short to medium-term."
Coal cargoes for shipment from Australia's Newcastle terminal GCLNWCPFBMc1 last settled at $48.60 a tonne, almost $10 below the floor seen during the global credit crisis of 2008/2009.
Australian coal has been hit hard by China's economic slowdown and its moves to reduce its addiction to coal, which meets two-thirds of its total energy demand.
China's coal imports slumped 30 percent to 204.1 million tonnes in 2015, hit by a slowdown in domestic demand, and imports could fall further this year. would avoid exposure to steel, aluminium, thermal coal, potash and nitrogen markets," Macquarie said.
"Thermal Coal (is) the big loser in the clean energy push and from industrial underperformance," it added.
Prices for cargoes from South Africa's Richards Bay GCLRCBPFBMc1 have been the best performers of the three benchmarks, yet they too fell over 7 percent since early January to $50 per tonne.
This means that all three physical coal price benchmarks are now at $50 a tonne or lower, a first since records for all three started.
And the futures market for coal does not look better. API2 2017 coal futures TRAPI2Yc1 hit $37.70 a tonne twice this week, down over 80 percent since their historical 2008-peak and at a level not seen since June 2003. (Editing by Anand Basu)