Kolkata, March 5 (IANS) Coking coal producer Ennore Coke Ltd expects spot prices of coking coal to touch $300 per tonne by June-July from a level of $260 per tonne at present.

'Coking coal is reaching new peaks and over the last two months, prices have gone up from $180 to $260 a tonne,' Ennore Coke's president and chief executive officer Ganesh Natarajan said Friday on the sidelines of a seminar on steel industry by Merchant Chamber of Commerce.

He said the price rise is expected due to heightened speculation around pricing strategy of major Australian exporters.

Reports of Australian miners planning to go for quarterly price fixation against earlier practice of yearly price fixation for coke contracts has triggered off speculation about likely upward revision in prices, Natarajan said.

He said bottlenecks in port infrastructure in Australia would also put pressure on coke prices.

'Long waiting period at some of the major ports of Australia like Newcastle are delaying shipments,' he said.