Taiwan Power Buys 1.05 Million Tons of Coal for Dec. to April

Taiwan Power Co., the island's biggest electricity producer, bought 1.05 million metric tons of power station coal to be delivered starting December until April 2008, a trader involved in the transactions said.

The company bought 15 panamax-sized cargoes of Indonesian coal mostly from PT Bumi Resources, said the trader who asked not to be identified because of company rules. He declined to give the price. A panamax vessel on average can carry 70,000 tons.

Thermal coal prices for fuel shipped from Australia's Newcastle port, an Asian benchmark, reached a record $88.63 a ton last week, according to the globalCOAL weekly index, amid rising demand from power utilities and export bottlenecks. Consumption is being buoyed by China's increasing imports.