* Deal covers more than one tenth of annual output
* Year-end production target unchanged
* Shares up 6 percent,
(Adds analyst, background)
By Jan Korselt
PRAGUE, June 18 (Reuters) - Czech coal miner NWR won a five-year contract worth over 15 billion crowns ($784.9 million) for coal deliveries to Austrian steelmaker Voestalpine, a document obtained by Reuters showed on Wednesday.
The news lifted NWR shares by more than 6 percent as it provided some relief to investors, who had dumped the shares in the past year as coal prices and demand fell amid the economic downturn.
"The contract gives NWR a security of sales to a big client in coming years," said Petr Novak, an analyst at Prague-based brokerage Atlantik FT.
"On the other hand it's only a framework agreement, the actual (sales) of coal will depend on the development of the steel industry in coming months and years."
The group's main customers including steel makers ArcelorMittal Ostrava, Vitkovice Steel , and Trinecke Zelezarny have been curbing production as exports in recession-strapped western Europe waned.
In May, power producer CEZ closed for several days its only Czech hard coal-fired power station in Detmarovice, which takes coal from NWR, due to high costs.
The deal will increase NWR's annual deliveries to the Austrian firm to 1.2 million tonnes from 1 million in the previous agreement, which expired in March, the document showed.
The contract represents more than one tenth of NWR's overall annual production.
NWR spokeswoman Petra Masinova confirmed the deal was signed but did not provide any details.
SHARES SOAR
The miner's shares, listed in London, Prague and Warsaw, closed 6.1 percent firmer in Prague at 93.8 crowns while the main PX index closed flat. The shares traded at 89.5 crowns before the news.
"The share reaction ... was exaggerated because they cooperate in the long-term and through this they have just expanded a framework contract to the future," said Dan Karpisek, an analyst at Unicredit. He added he expected some correction in the share price on Friday.
The new deal does not change the company's production target for this year, set at 10.5 million tonnes, the document said.
NWR, the owner of the Czech Republic's largest hard coal mines, cut the target in May from an originally planned 12.1 million tonnes.
"After the (weak) first quarter sales, this target seems rather optimistic," Atlantik's Novak said.
The miner showed a surprise first-quarter net loss as demand slumped. NWR blamed the poor outcome on more than a 40 percent decline in the regional steel production in the period.
The export-reliant Czech economy, dominated by the car and electronics industries, shrank by a record 3.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009 as exports plummeted.
NWR shares added 26.9 percent since the beginning of the year but lost 79 percent since an initial public offering in May last year. ($1=19.11 Czech crowns) (Writing by Jana Mlcochova; editing by Mike Nesbit and Rupert Winchester)