Round-up: New River, Wincanton

European coal miner New World Resources has agreed with customers a 17% increase in the price for coking coal for the third quarter compared with the second, and a 42% hike in coke prices."The coking coal and coke prices we have agreed for the third calendar quarter of 2010 are encouraging and are evidence of the continued solid demand for our products this year," said executive chairman Mike Salamon. "However, given the continued uncertainty regarding the prospects for the steel industry, we remain cautious about predicting the outcome of future pricing negotiations as they will be driven by the market dynamics at the time."Logistics group Wincanton's recent trading gives grounds for cautious optimism with a recovery in customer volumes and of a stronger new business pipeline.The UK has seen a number of important contract reneals, while the German road network restructuring programme is now completed and has started to produce positive trading results, following the closure and restructuring of a number of loss making depots.The group will deliver a financial performance in the year to 31 March 2011 in line with expectations and "we are targeting an improvement in underlying operating profit", Wincanton said.