Gloucester sold 516,000 tonnes in the quarter, up 13% on the previous period.

“Gloucester can adjust its mining and sales product mix towards thermal coal, so as to maximize overall sales volume within the allocation constraints provided by the Port of Newcastle capacity balancing system,” the company said in its quarterly statement.

Gloucester slashed coking coal sales by 40%, while increasing thermal sales by 35% to 390,000t.

Gloucester said it was close to closing contract negotiations for its 700,000t of coking coal for the 2009-10 Japanese financial year.

The company said it retained a strong order book for thermal coal and was fully sold through to June 2009. Thereafter, it has forward sales of 1.1Mt averaging about $US70/t.

The New South Wales producer said it expected to produce 2Mt for the 2009 financial year and currently has $A58 million in cash and no debt.

In company news, Gloucester said it was still waiting to hear on a decision by the Review Panel on a proposed merger with Whitehaven and a takeover bid from Noble Group.

Gloucester closed up 13.4% on Monday at $A5.60.