Teck Resources sells more coal, sees China demand

* Sees coking coal demand from new China steel mills

* Coal sales overbooked in second quarter

* Stock up 5.5 pct, has risen five-fold since March

* (In U.S. dollars unless noted)

TORONTO, June 4 (Reuters) - Teck Resources (TCKb.TO: Quote, Profile, Research) painted a brighter picture of demand for its coking coal on Thursday, saying it sold more than it will produce during the second quarter, and predicting rising demand from a Chinese steel industry in transition.

"China has embarked on a program of rationalizing their steel business. This will require them to import more coking coal... and we have seen this starting to occur this year," Doug Horswill, the company's vice-president of external affairs, said at an investment conference in New York.

Teck became one of the world's top producers of coking coal -- which is used in the steelmaking business -- when it acquired Fording Canadian Coal Trust last year.

He said Chinese officials contacted Teck last year to discuss supplying part of up to 30 million tonnes of seaborne coking coal annually that the country will need to sustain four new giant steel mills being build on the Chinese coast.

"Our understanding is that there's something in the order of 180 million tonnes of obsolete steel capacity in the interior of China that the government intends to see closed and replaced by the consolidated plants on the coast," he said.