Thermal coal prices at Australia’s Newcastle port, a benchmark for Asia, jumped to a record for a third week on supply curbs and rising demand.

The index for power-station coal prices at the New South Wales port rose $1.70, or 1.1 percent, to $160.23 a metric ton in the week ended June 13, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index. The volume shipped in the week ended 7 a.m. local time today fell 14 percent to 1.24 million tons from 1.44 million tons a week earlier, Newcastle Port Corp. said on its Web site.

Thermal coal producers won a 125 percent increase to $125 a ton in annual contract prices for the year that started April 1. Prices will remain at record levels into next year as power stations demand more of the fuel and railroad and port bottlenecks in Australia and South Africa limit supply, Preston Chiaro, the head of Rio Tinto Group’s energy unit, said June 6.

Xstrata Plc, the world’s largest exporter of power-station coal, BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto are among mining companies that ship the fuel through Newcastle. A total of 40 ships waiting to load 3.41 million tons of coal were lined up outside the port, up from last week’s 30.

Ships waited 11.81 days to load coal in the week ended June 16, down from 13.49 days a week earlier, Newcastle Port said. The waiting time compared with 0.53 day for general cargo vessels last week, it said.

A total of 29 vessels carrying coal left Newcastle in the week ended June 14, three more than a week earlier, Newcastle Port said today in an e-mailed report. Departures included thirteen ships bound for Japan, three for South Korea and two for Taiwan, it said.

The weekly globalCOAL index is up 79 percent so far this year. The monthly index gained 9.4 percent to $138.31 in May, from $126.45 the previous month.