Euro Coal-Prices up $1-4 a tonne on Colombia strike, oil

* Cerrejon in talks to avoid strike this weekend
* Oil up sharply by $1.84/bbl on fast U.S. growth
* Reuters poll shows 5.5 mln T lost in Queensland floods
* March DES ARA trades at $119.50/T, up $1.00

LONDON, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Prompt coal prices rose $1.00-4.00 a tonne on Friday on stronger oil prices and market anxiety that a strike may start soon at Colombia's largest coal exporter Cerrejon.
Although coal prices have fallen over $12.00 a tonne from the peaks in early January, the market is still vulnerable to any fresh supply disruptions.
Buyers who face delayed or cancelled cargoes will be able to replace them but are likely to push the market higher in the process.

The market has adjusted to the loss of thermal coal from Australia due to Queensland's floods, because China and India have withdrawn from the spot market.
According to a Reuters poll on Thursday, around 5.5 million tonnes of thermal coal was lost in Queensland and 11.3 million tonnes of coking coal.
"Colombia and the possible strike is the talk of the market today but prices haven't moved up much, yet," one major European trader said.

Oil prices moved up sharply by $1.84 a barrel on better than expected U.S. economic data and this helped pull coal values higher, traders said [O/R].
Late on Thursday workers at Colombia's biggest exporter Cerrejon, voted overwhelmingly for a strike after failing to reach agreement on pay.
Under Colombian law, workers cannot strike in the first two days after the vote or on the last day of a mandatory 10-day period. After that they must vote again on whether to strike.
Cerrejon is still trying to reach a deal with the unions before the strike begins.
Colombian exporters including Cerrejon have ample stockpiles at the ports and would be able to ship from these for weeks without delays or cancellations, industry sources said.
The strike would have to be protracted to have any real impact, they said.
But the strike vote has given a fillip to bullish sentiment.

European utilities would be the hardest-hit by any disruption to Cerrejon's exports but they are still holding back from booking new cargoes, waiting for further falls in coal and freight and for the Rhine to reopen fully to barge traffic after an accident.
TRADES

A March delivery DES ARA cargo traded at $119.50 a tonne, up $1.00.

PRICES

A March loading South African cargo was bid at $118.60 with an offer of $119.00, up $4.00 on the bid.

A March delivery DES ARA cargo was bid at $120.00, up $5.00 on the bid, following the earlier trade at $119.50.
An April delivery DES ARA cargo was bid at $116.50 and offered at $119.00, also up $4.00 on the bid.(Reporting by Jackie Cowhig, courtsey sourced: af.reuters)