LONDON (Reuters) - Prices of prompt South African coal cargoes FOB Richards Bay and coal delivered into Europe hit fresh records for the second time this week on strong demand and tight supply.

Surging API2 and API4 coal swaps values, in line with high oil and other energy markets, also boosted physical coal prices.

This week most days have seen close to a million tonnes of physical coal trade on globalCOAL's screen and via brokers, a significant rise in volume from a year ago, due to the entry of banks and oil trading companies into the coal market.

Most of the activity has been several months forward, for Q3, Q4 and Q1 2009. There is a strong contango in the market with November cargoes, for example, trading at several dollars above very prompt.

A Q4 trade for a panamax a month loading of South African coal went through on globalCOAL on Thursday at a record $152.00 a tonne FOB Richards Bay, up from November prices of around $143.00 last week.

A Q1 09 DES ARA trade for a 50,000 tonne parcel a month went through globalCOAL on Thursday at $182.50 a tonne, a fresh record for forward prices. January cargoes had been bid at around $180.00 recently but had not traded. A September delivery parcel traded earlier this week at $177.00 a tonne DES ARA.

Both FOB and DES prices could still rise sharply due to continued strong demand, tight supply and the expectation of continued high oil prices, traders, utilities and producers said.