Central Europe's leading coking coal producer, Czech-based New World Resources N.V. (NWR), has announced coking coal and coke price increases of 17 percent and 42 percent respectively for the third quarter compared to the second quarter of the calendar year 2010.
Accordingly, quarterly priced coking coal, which represents 20 percent of the total expected sales volume for 2010, amounts to approximately 300,000 mt for delivery in Q3 2010 and comprises mostly semi-soft coking coal. The average price agreed for these deliveries was €158/mt - up 17 percent compared to the average price for Q2 2010.
Meanwhile, NWR's average price agreed for coke sales during Q3 2010 was €362/mt - up 42 percent compared to Q2 prices and up 143 percent compared to the 2009 average price. The expected sales volume for the period is approximately 250,000 mt.
"The coking coal and coke prices we have agreed for the third calendar quarter of 2010 are encouraging and are evidence of the continued solid demand for our products this year," NWR's executive chairman Mike Salamon commented.
"However, given the continued uncertainty regarding the prospects for the steel industry, we remain cautious about predicting the outcome of future pricing negotiations as they will be driven by the market dynamics at the time," added Mr. Salamon.
NWR said that during calendar 2010 it expects to sell externally a total of approximately 5.5 million mt of coking coal, 5 million mt of thermal coal and 1.1 million of coke. Meanwhile, its production targets for the year are maintained at 11.5 million mt of coal and one million mt of coke.