Coking Coal Price May Exceed $300 on Australian Floods

Steelmaking coal contract prices may rise to more than $300 a metric ton after the worst floods in 50 years disrupted output from producers including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group in Australia’s Queensland state, according to Daiwa Capital Markets.

Flooding may cut as much as 10 million tons of coking coal from the market if disruptions to mining last six weeks, David Brennan, a Melbourne-based analyst at Daiwa, wrote in a research note yesterday.