News: WHC Whitehaven says Cyclone Debbie outages to hit coking coal prices for months

SYDNEY, April 13 (Reuters) - Australia's Whitehaven Coal Ltd (WHC) said on Thursday that coking coal prices will remain high for months and that it will boost its own sales as supply disruption caused by Cyclone Debbie reverberates through markets.

The disruption caused by the cyclone could lead to the potential loss of 15 million tonnes of coking and thermal coal exports from Australia, Whitehaven said in a statement.

"This loss of exports is likely to be positive for coal prices until normal production and shipments resume and any contract delivery shortfall recovered, which could take some months," the company said.

Coking coal prices this month posted the biggest one-day surge on record as rail outages caused by Cyclone Debbie blocked up to half the world's export shipments.

Spot prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange DJMcv1, jumped more than 7 percent and Australian coking coal futures on the Singapore Exchange SCAFc1 leapt 43 percent on news of the disruptions.

Whitehaven said it produced 5.7 million tonnes of coal for the quarter and affirmed its full-year production guidance of 21 to 22 million tonnes.