Gloucester Coal recently announced that it has settled coking coal prices some key Japanese clients for the Japanese Financial Year which runs from April 2009 to March 2010.

New contract prices for the coming year will be less than the previous year, with the weighted average USD FOB price for Gloucester Coals’ semi had coking coal reducing by more that 60%.

The release said that “The impact of this fall will be softened by completion of deliveries in the quarter ended June 30th 2009 of remaining2008-09 Japanese FY carryover tonnages at last year’s prices. Deliveries in 2009-10 Japanese FY, including carryover tonnages, are expected to be approximately 700,000 tonnes.”