LONDON (Reuters) - Prices for prompt loading South African coal cargoes reached a new record on Thursday with a trade at $85.00 a tonne free-on-board (FOB) for a February cargo.

February cargoes had been bid at around $82.00 a tonne last week.

Strong Indian demand and tight supply has pushed South African prices up to record levels from around $47.00 at the beginning of the year.

On Thursday, a January panamax cargo was bid at $84.35 and offered at $84.90 on electronic trading platform globalCOAL. A February cape was bid at $84.40 and a panamax offered against it at $85.00.

There was a Q2 panamax a month bid at $82.00 and offered at

$84.75.

European DES/CIF ARA coal prices have remained fairly stable over the past few days, having traded up to a record $130.00 a tonne DES ARA late last week.

Fair value is probably just below $130.00 a tonne, traders said.

A January cape-sized parcel (150,000 tonnes) was bid at $128.25 a tonne DES ARA on globalCOAL and a 50,000 tonne parcel was offered against it at $132.00.

A multi-origin cape-sized parcel for January delivery was also offered on Thursday at $140.00 a tonne DES Amsterdam-Rotterdam.

Two parcels of Colombian coal for January delivery, one of 50,000 tonnes and one of 150,000 tonnes, were bid at $127.00 and $127.50 a tonne on Thursday.