Indonesia's Bumi confirms $132/tonne coal deals

JAKARTA, May 16 (Reuters) - Indonesia's largest coal miner, PT Bumi Resources Tbk (BUMI.JK), confirmed that it has signed 2008 coal deals with some Japanese utilities at $132 a tonne.

Dileep Srivastava said by email that the agreed price was 140 percent above 2007 prices.

Traders said on Thursday that the company has negotiated a 120 percent price hike for 2008 thermal coal deliveries to some Japanese utilities.

Two industry sources also said the firm had agreed to sell 5 million tonnes of thermal coal at $132 a tonne to some Japanese utilities, while other Japanese utilities have signed index-linked supply contracts with Bumi at $6 above the globalCOAL benchmark index. (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, editing by Ed Davies)