Walter Energy Inc said its year to date sales volumes are exceeding the record levels reached in 2008 and demand for steelmaking coal has shown no signs of reduction.

The coal miner expects to supply about 6.4 million tonnes of hard coking coal in 2009 as compared with 5.8 million tonnes sold in 2008.

Mr Victor Patrick CEO "In short we returned to a situation where our sales are limited not by customer demand, but by our production and inventory.”

Walter which posted a strong third quarter profit expects to sell about 1.6 million to 1.7 million tonnes of coking coal in the fourth quarter, whereas production may range between 1.4 million and 1.5 million tonnes only.

The company said that it expects to begin longwall mining in one of its mines by mid-December and will likely hit full capacity by January.

(Sourced from Thomson Reuters)