Noble

Noble: as of last Friday, Noble’s 65% owned Gloucester Coal remains as one of the only coal companies largely unaffected by the recent heavy rainfall, posting a record quarter for coking coal sales. Coking coal sales for Dec was up 49% yoy to 222k tons, while thermal sales receded 8% to 272k tons as Gloucester continued to maximise pdtn and sale of coking coal…

Gloucester has yet to agree on its coking coal pricing for the Jan-Mar 2011 quarter, however a substantial increase in price is expected. In addition, the co has an uncontracted volume of coking coal available for sale to benefit from the surge in spot prices. Mgt said pdtn would ramp up quickly following the approvals received at its Duralie and Stratford operations, as it pushes for the targeted 3.5m tpa output by 2014.