Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Teck Cominco Ltd., which last month gained control of the world's second-largest exporter of coking coal, fell the most in 20 years in Toronto on speculation that prices for the steelmaking ingredient will decline.

Teck slid C$2.20, or 20 percent, to C$8.75 at 4:15 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading, the biggest drop since September 1988. The stock has plunged 81 percent since July 31, the day Teck said it agreed to buy Fording Canadian Coal Trust to boost sales of the fuel.

``There have been a lot of rumors just in the past 24 hours about steel companies trying to renegotiate, and just about every other commodity is off today,'' Salman Partners analyst Haytham Hodaly said in a telephone interview. ``It doesn't mean that buyers will renegotiate with Teck; it's just not good for coal prices in general.''

Teck has agreements with lenders for $9.8 billion in loans, including a $5.8 billion, one-year bridge loan, to finance part of its cash-and-stock acquisition of Fording. The company is not considering selling stock to pay down the debt and expects its coal sales to cover ``a substantial portion,'' Teck said in a statement today.

Teck Chief Executive Officer Donald Lindsay has bought coal and copper assets during the past year in a bid to reduce dependence on zinc prices, which have fallen 59 percent on the London Metal Exchange in the past 12 months. The company is the world's second-largest producer of zinc.

`You Get Shot'

Vancouver-based Teck completed the cash and stock acquisition of Fording Canadian for about C$10.4 billion ($8.64 billion) on Oct. 30, amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

``Everyone's getting punished and if there's a sense that you need cash, you get shot,'' Caesar Bryan, a fund manager at Gabelli & Co. in Rye, New York, said in a telephone interview.

Fording's Elk Valley Coal Partnership, which operates mines in Alberta and British Columbia, trails only Australia's BHP Billiton Ltd. in seaborne coal sales. Fording Canadian owned 60 percent of the Elk Valley venture, and Teck owned the remainder.

To contact the reporters on this story: Rob Delaney in Toronto at robdelaney@bloomberg.net; Stewart Bailey in New York at sbailey7@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 11, 2008 16:55 EST