Prices for thermal coal at the port of Newcastle have hit another record of $105.17 a tonne, according to electronic trading platform globalCOAL.

This follows a price lift for thermal coal at Newcastle of $9 a tonne over the weekend, to $102 a tonne, according to globalCOAL.

The price increase has been credited to two main factors.

Firstly, there was last week’s directive from the Chinese Ministry of Communication which told Chinese port authorities to halt their exports of coal during February and March in order to boost local supplies to generators and therefore alleviate power shortages in China.

The move has seen Japanese and Korean power suppliers searching for alternative supplies.

The second contributing factor is also power shortages, this time in South Africa, where State-run power supplier Eksom is looking to the country’s coal miners to find an extra five million tonnes of thermal coal over the next three months, in order to ensure adequate winter stocks and minimise the possibility of power cuts.

In light of the disruptions to Australian coking coal production following severe flooding in Queensland’s Bowen Basin, predictions for increases in contract prices for coking coal continue, with talk of prices going above $200 a metric tonne for the 2008 Japanese financial year.

Prior to the flooding, Xstrata made the first formal contract proposal for the 2008 Japanese financial year at $US210 a tonne. In a report from Merrill Lynch last week, head of Australian research Vicky Binns said huge production losses in the flood-ravaged Bowen Basin could see such prices come to fruition.

“We calculate at least 10 million metric tonnes of coking coal could be lost. In addition, with the distribution network operating at breaking point prior to the floods, there is little or no chance of making up this lost tonnage,” Ms Binns said in her report.

“If Asian mills were to compete for limited HCC tonnage, we believe this price (US$210/mt) is likely, with upsides.”