Asciano Group has secured a 10 year coal haulage contract with Centennial Coal worth about USD 550 million. The contract is a renewal contract for Asciano subsidiary Pacific National to haul 4.5 million tonnes of coal from Centennial's mines in the Southern and Western Coalfields regions of NSW.

Mr Mark Rowsthorn CEO of Asciano said that "Centennial Coal is a long term customer of Pacific National and has solid growth prospects ahead. We look forward to growing our partnership with Centennial and continuing to deliver superior quality of services for the long term."

In addition to the Centennial Coal contract, Asciano recently signed three long term, take or pay contracts with Austar, Integra Coal and Muswellbrook Coal Company. The contracts were also renewals of existing contracts, and would generate over USD 275 million of combined revenue. Asciano also said that Whitehaven Coal and Idemitsu Boggabri had triggered an option for an additional train of capacity each under their agreements. The two train sets would commence operations in the fourth quarter of calendar 2011.

(Sourced from Money.ninemsn)