New World agrees lower coke/higher coal prices

Central European coal miner New World Resources has reached agreements with its customers for coking coal and coke sales for the first quarter of 2012 as well as thermal coal sales for the calendar year 2012.

The average agreed price of coking coal for delivery in the first calendar quarter of 2012 is €142 per tonne, a decrease of 13% compared to the fourth quarter realised price.

The average price agreed for coke sales during the first calendar quarter of 2012 is €311 per tonne, a decrease of 11%compared to the fourth quarter realised price, as a result of continued weakness in the European coke market, in particular for blast furnace coke.

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The average price agreed for thermal coal sales for the calendar year 2012 is €74 per tonne. This is an increase of 11% compared to the 2011 average realised price and reflects strong regional demand for thermal coal as a source of power generation.

All of the announced prices are based on an exchange rate of 25 Czech koruna to 1 euro.

In the final quarter of 2011 the company sold 1.18m tonnes of coking coal at an average price of €167 per tonne. For the year as a whole 4.42m tonnes of coking coal were sold at an average price of €181 per tonne.

As for thermal coal, 1.45m tonnes were sold in the final quarter at €72 per tonne. Full year sales of 6.23m tonnes were made at an average price of €70 per tonne.

Combined coal sales of 10.65m tonnes were ahead of the company's target of 10.3m tonnes.

Coke sales in the final quarter were made at €350 per tonne, and 0.13m tonnes were sold. Over the full year, 0.56m tonnes were sold at an average of €365 per tonne. Sales volumes were within the company's guidance range of 0.525m - 0.575m tonnes for the year.

On the production front, in the final quarter 2.61m tonnes of coal were produced, taking the full year total to 11.25m tonnes, slightly ahead of the company's full year target of 11m tonnes, mainly due to higher volumes of thermal coal.

The company said 0.19m tonnes of coke was produced, pushing the full year total up to 0.77m tonnes.

In 2012, NWR expects to produce between 10.8m and 11m tonnes of coal and 0.7m tonnes of coke in 2012.

NWR expects external sales in 2012 of between 10.25m and 10.5M tonnes of coal split roughly 48% coking coal and 52% thermal coal. NWR further expects to sell around 0.6m tonnes of coke in 2012.